Joyshop Ministries Blog

2010-11-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,
November is here and we at JoyShop Ministries are very excited to share with you all that God has done this past year in providing the necessary resources to begin our huge dream project: Getting our workshop, “Seeking God First” into an affordable DVD series.
From the very first JoyShop I held at my home church in January of 2005, people were asking for it in DVD form. A year later, I had our church tape my workshop using poor quality DVDs that I had purchased at BJ’s! They were a hit except for one small problem . . . halfway through, the DVD would stop working and we were getting “nice” complaint calls. That is when I personally made the decision that I would not tape the workshop again until the ministry could afford to tape it professionally and of top quality.
Back in those days, my workshop was only two hours long. However, after many requests for more teaching, I slowly added to the workshop – and it is now close to five hours long! This type of a workshop can easily be made into a “series” that would be great in a church, Sunday school class, small group or retreat setting. The time has finally come to record the workshop! The taping will take place on Nov. 15-16 in the main ball room at the Lancaster Cork Factory Hotel.
Although we are extremely confident of the Lord’s leading and provisions, we have a responsibility to work hard and bring our best to this exciting opportunity. One way we are doing this is by hiring Shane and Kelle Ortiz, of Soteria Productions, based in Atlanta, Georgia. They have won more than 19 awards since 2002 and have clients such as Family Life Ministries, Grammy winning artists Third Day, Christian comedian Anita Renfroe, fast food’s premiere chicken provider, Chick-Fil-A and many other reputable organizations. Stephen Ostrander, a professional independent director in the world of film and video, will also be part of this team. He has won three Emmy awards for his work and most recently worked on the new film, “Courageous,” coming out soon from Sherwood Productions, the company that produced “Fireproof.” Not only are these people gifted with communicating powerful messages to their audiences but, more importantly, they love the Lord Jesus, and they thrive on anything that is going to reach more people with the gospel message of God’s love. I believe God has brought us together to produce the best possible product to reach the masses.
Using people of this caliber requires significant funds. We are looking to raise a total of $80,000 in order to give our best to God and His purposes. Your gift of $10, $25 or more is greatly needed and appreciated as we trust God to have all funds in hand by the end of November. Your gifts will affirm that we at JoyShop Ministries are correctly hearing God’s call for completion of a DVD.
Sometimes I ask God, “Is this project really worth spending this kind of money on the simple message you have compelled me to share?” As I have wrestled with Him on this because of my desire to be a good steward of any money this ministry receives, He continues to affirm the direction He is leading us. Sometimes it comes through the mail by an unexplainable significant contribution to the ministry. Other times it comes through personal notes received from young girls such as this one:

“Your message was very powerful and your story touched my heart . . . I was fighting back tears as I re-lived my own situation . . . . I, too, am 17 and have just gone through a pregnancy, but unlike you I took the easy way out and chose abortion. The procedure I chose was called a medical abortion, which is an alternative to a surgical procedure. In this way you can take a pill which causes the uterus to contract and expel the fetus. Around midnight after taking the pills I climbed out of bed and ran to the bathroom where I delivered my 8 week old fetus on the floor. Seeing my baby lying there, I screamed for my mother. I cried all night along after realizing what I had done. My heart was broken but my mother told me to pray, pray, pray. I did, and I felt God speak to me telling me that he forgave me and everything will heal over time. I now understand I cannot let my fears or the enemy speak over my life. Your testimony tonight offered more strength and help to me. Thank you for sharing.”
Other times it comes through a Facebook message like this one from a male who attended a JoyShop at the invitation of another student:
“Thank you for speaking at LMH this past Sunday night! It was very cool to hear your stories and it made me look back over my life again. This past week I've actually been getting up early in order to read the Bible and talk with God. I've tried it before but never could do it. So thanks for being the one who "pushed me over the edge." I'm so glad I came … Thanks again!
Friends, I just turned 54, and honestly, I don’t know how much longer I have to share this message. I am one person who can physically only do so much. Our message is foundational in meeting the need of a starving Church which no longer prioritizes daily time in God’s Word. Charles Stanley once said, “If you don’t have time for prayer and Bible Study, Satan is winning the war.” I need your help to get JoyShop’s message out to battle against Satan’s strategies of defeat in the lives of believers everywhere!!!
Time is running out; the Lord’s return is nearer every day and until He returns, He requires each of us to be faithful and multiply the “talents” He has given us!
May each of us be faithful with those talents! And may we hear on His return, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the JOY of your Lord.” (Matthew 25:23) Will you personally join me in this battle by contributing to this DVD project and affirm God’s call for us. The need as noted is great, but we believe God will provide through you. Thank you.
Serving together,
Anita
Anita Keagy
Founder, JoyShop Ministries

June Newsletter

2010-06-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

Newsletter June 2010
Note from Anita
“’If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” John 7:37-39

If you are like me, most of you just skimmed over the above verse, not letting the content sink into your heart. I want to ask you to take a moment, close your eyes, and ask God’s precious Spirit to minister to your heart as you read the life-giving words of Jesus again.
A prerequisite to having the Spirit of God in our lives is a fundamental belief in Jesus. None of us can even say “Jesus is Lord” apart from God’s Spirit living within us. (I Corinthians 12:3) But having the Spirit of God within does not always mean that I am experiencing the fullness of His Spirit. So often I cry out to God, even beg, ‘Lord Jesus, fill me with Your Spirit,’ as if it is some supernatural phenomenon that is going to overtake me miraculously and I will now be a super duper Christian who always walks around pleasing God and never failing Him. Subconsciously I am looking for an “experience.” In other words, it’s all about me. But a few weeks ago, I was reading a sermon by A.W. Tozer, and this statement jumped off the page: “Many, many have failed to note Peter’s Pentecostal emphasis: The important thing in God’s plan was the fact that Jesus had been exulted in heaven, and that His glorification there had been the signal for the coming of the Holy Spirit . . . . the Spirit does not have to be begged – He comes when the Savior is honored and exalted!”
Being filled with God’s Spirit is not about me and what I may or may not experience. But more importantly, it is a heart whose greatest desire is to honor and exalt Jesus in all that one does and says. Together may our heart’s cry be, “Oh God, more than anything else, I desire for my life and my words to honor and exult Jesus. He is worthy of all glory! May each morning that I arise bring words of adoration and praise to my Savior.”

These past months, the Lord has allowed JoyShop Ministries the privilege of serving him in numerous settings. The JoyShop Team feels very blessed in that we are often able to see fruit from our ministry almost immediately.
Comments from recent retreats:
“I am leaving feeling re-energized and re-dedicated to my quiet time every day.”

”This has been most helpful for me to realize that I need to make God a priority.”

“I have not been consistent in seeking God first on a daily basis, but I am accepting the challenge of seeking Him first!”

“This was my first retreat! It was very inspiring and gave me a more clear direction as to how to read the Bible and get to know God. Thank you.”

“I have completed the 21-Day Challenge study this past year and continue to use those study principles in my reading. Thank you for these tools.”

“You have taught me a new way of looking at spending time with God on a daily basis. Thank you for coming into my life at this time.”

“I am anxious to put this info to use when doing my devotions.”

“I know the importance of a daily quiet time . . . in fact, I routinely teach it to other women. However, my own quiet times have fallen prey to my busy life. Thanks for the “kick in the pants” . . .

One pastor’s response to his congregation after the ministry’s challenge of seeking God first on a daily basis truly reflects my heart’s desire for everyone:
“I have had several good conversations about how great it was . . . to be challenged . . . to have a quiet time with God in the morning each day . . . this was a huge challenge and one that is not easily carried out without some accountability. I am writing to each of you to encourage you to not miss those meetings with the Lord each morning. For me the decision needs to be made before I go to bed so that my opportunity (alarm) clock wakes me up at the right time; otherwise, I would miss the meeting and need to get right to the agenda for the day . . . . let us encourage one another in this area that so easily gets attacked and crowded out by the agenda we have in our heads and calendars. If you are married, hold each other accountable by talking about your meeting with the Lord. If we all get serious about having a meeting with the Lord each day, we will see our marriages, families, neighbors, church and even this region transformed by the power of the living God.”
Amen and Amen!!!! Preach it, Brother Joe!

Prayer for the ministry:
Exciting days are ahead for the ministry and I praise the Lord for the many provisions and open doors he is giving us.
Please pray for:
--The working out of all the details in taping the JoyShop professionally in November including distribution of the DVD series.
--Kelle Ortiz, of Soteria Productions, who not only will be apart of the team who will be taping JoyShop in November but who has stepped out in faith and obedience to begin screenwriting for the film, “The File,” based on my book. She feels very passionate about the story and would like to help get it out to reach more people. We don’t know what God has planned or even if the screenplay will become a film but we are trusting that God’s will and purposes will be accomplished whatever the outcome. Particularly pray for her on Wednesdays. That’s the day she has set aside each week to work on this huge vision.
--Most importantly, please continue to pray that our hearts will remain hungry for a deeper intimacy with Jesus and that together we will continue to prioritize this most important relationship so that our lives will bring praise and honor to Jesus Christ.

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR JULY 18. JOYSHOP MINISTRIES IS HOSTING AN ALL U CAN EAT ICE-CREAM SOCIAL AT MY HOME ON 2045 PROSPECT RD. WASHINGTON BORO, PA, AT 6:30. I WILL BE GIVING AN UPDATE ON THE MINISTRY AND SHANE AND KELLE ORTIZ, FROM ATLANTA, GA., WILL SHARE THEIR ROLE IN HELPING JOYSHOP MINISTRIES’ MESSAGE SPREAD THROUGH MEDIA. WE WILL SPEND SOME TIME IN PRAYER FOR THE FUTURE OF THE MINISTRY AND THEN HAVE SOME FOOD AND FELLOWSHIP!

March Update

2010-03-23T17:46:00.001-07:00

April Newsletter 2010

“If you were to spend a month feeding on the precious promises of God, you would not be going about with your heads hanging down like bulrushes, complaining how poor you are; but you would lift up your heads with confidence, and proclaim the riches of His grace because you could not help it.” D. L. Moody

Note from Anita

Last night as I crawled in bed exhausted from the difficult challenges of my day, I stared at my alarm clock and told God, “I just can’t get up as early as I would like to tomorrow morning to spend time with you!” I knew that I had to leave my house by 7:00 a.m. in order to get to Millerstown for an all day JoyShop. Normally I like to allow at the very least one hour with the Lord before leaving for a speaking engagement. Of course, one has to allow additional time for make-up, hair repair and dress. I was emotionally drained and just didn’t have it in me. So I added the usual request to my statement, “Lord, if I need extra time with you in the morning then you will just have to wake me up. I can’t bring myself to set the alarm any earlier.”

It never fails, He wakes me every time! By 4:45 a.m., my eyes were wide open and I thanked the Lord for waking me and giving me the extra time to prepare for ministry. As I left my house this morning, I praised the Lord for His faithfulness in spite of my own weakness. His Word energizes me and I can step out to faithfully speak His Word, knowing that it will not be in vain. One of my favorite promises is from Isaiah 55:10-11, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

There is so much to share with you that I hardly know where to begin. God has been so faithful and continues to confirm the call He has placed on this ministry. The simplest way to testify to God’s generosity is just to share the many things for which I am thankful.

As many of you know, I sent out a letter the end of December expressing our need to raise $50,000 in order to professionally tape JoyShop in a live setting. We have received more than $19,000 thus far and we are praising the Lord for this sign of confirmation. In February, Paul and I had the opportunity to travel to Atlanta, Georgia, to meet with Shane and Kelle Ortiz of Soteria Productions. God led me to this couple two years ago and we had been in discussion about the possibility of working together. You can tell by our picture that we had a great meeting. Our goal is for them to come to Lancaster in November to tape at Manor Church. Please continue to pray for JoyShop Ministries as we step out in faith and trust God to carry this project to completion.

In January our DVD promo for JoyShop Ministries was completed. After many hours of taping, interviewing, and editing, Shire Interactive was able to condense it all in to a two- and-a-half minute promotional. We needed this in order to provide material to hosting churches and schools to encourage better attendance at our events. We are hoping to add it to our website in the near future.

God opened an unexpected door to speak at Sarasota Christian School while Paul and I were vacationing in Florida with friends. Yes, I was supposed to be on vacation, but it is nearly impossible for me to turn down an opportunity to share with teens. The unexpected bonus was having my daughter, Twila, and her husband, Daniel, along with two of my grandchildren attend the chapel service where I was speaking. It was history in the making. She had never heard me speak “live” and it was awesome to be able to introduce her to the student body when I was done speaking! Later on in the evening I talked with the woman who had given me the invitation to speak at the school. She told me that one of the teachers bought my book and decided to read it aloud to her class. She had read four chapters to her class that afternoon! Several students shared with me the impact the story had on them. The ministry provided the students with our teen journal packet that consists of a journal, pocket testament, and highlighter. They were invited to take the 21 Day Challenge so that their relationship with Jesus would grow deeper. There is no doubt in my mind that lives were impacted due to God’s grace. Praise His Name!

Another unexpected blessing was meeting a woman in Florida who happened to attend a Christmas tea where I had spoken three years earlier in Lancaster County. She told me that she has been seeking God first ever since and it has changed her life. Her husband who was standing beside her confirmed it!!!

I thank God for the four women retreats we were able to be a part of from January through March. One comment I received through email made my heart soar: “Thanks so much for sharing your JoyShop with us. I know a lot of ladies are taking your challenge very seriously. A good friend of mine and her husband now get up every morning together for individual quiet time …”

Two women who had attended a retreat a year ago recently sent me an email saying that, as a result of that weekend, they have been seeking God first daily. Their hearts are on fire to share the message with others and God opened the door for them to speak at a women’s retreat in Hershey. Two women who attended that retreat wanted to take the message back to the women who could not attend. I am so thankful to God for multiplying the message through others. I pray it just keeps spreading: SEEK GOD FIRST!

Thank you for your partnership through prayer and finances. This ministry could not continue without your support. We are the body of Christ appointed to serve one another in unity and love. Each of you has blessed me and I pray that God will bless you abundantly as you seek Him. We are in a battle and the enemy will do what he can to keep us from spending time alone with Jesus. Do not give him an inch!

Blessings,

Anita

How to Pray for JoyShop:

 Please continue to pray for protection over my mind and my family as being in ministry continually puts us in the line of fire.
 Continue to pray for the Board as we make plans for professionally taping JoyShop and all the work that comes with that. We want to be wise stewards of our finances.
 Pray that the Lord will grant the ministry favor as we look to a well-known Christian organization to help us plan ahead in making our materials marketable.
 Pray for the next JoyShop event that will be held at Grace Church at Willow Valley. This is a women’s only event and will be the last JoyShop in Lancaster County until July, when I will be at Rawlinsville Campmeeting.

Messiah College

2009-11-05T17:20:00.000-08:00

JoyShop Newsletter November 2009

‘The church of Christ and the spiritual life of thousands of its members suffers from the root disease! It is none other than the neglect of secret communion with God … it explains the weakness of the Christian life. No wonder we can’t resist the world. No wonder we fail to bring forth fruit abundantly. Nothing can change this except restoring the quiet time with the Lord in the life of the believer.”

Note from Anita

Since January of 2005, I have devoted my time to this very thing – encouraging believers to continue or restore their daily time alone with God. My challenge is that we not only recommit to this much-needed discipline but that we prioritize it in our day … make it first! If any given church would make this discipline a major focus it would revolutionize our churches like nothing else!

Recently I had the privilege to take the message of JoyShop to a group of dedicated pastors and their wives in a retreat setting. I felt genuinely blessed by these humble servants of God. After being in ministry for four years, I understand in a small way how easy it is to burn out for God. Henry Nouwen once said, “Nothing conflicts with love of Christ like service for Christ.” People in ministry can get carried away with all their self-imposed work and before you know it, daily quiet time for intimacy with Jesus gets set aside! Many of these precious pastors and wives shared with me that they had been in desperate need for this workshop and thanked me for the encouragement to guard their time alone with God.

A few mentioned as one pastor did, “I needed the words about the importance of recovering the early morning watch with God. I had become easy going about this discipline.” Another pastor mentioned that the workshop was “challenging and renewing—a much needed spiritual boast!” I felt very blessed to be able to serve the body of Christ in this way. Even though I come home very exhausted, extreme JOY fills my heart at the Lord’s graciousness in producing fruit for the Kingdom.

Students from Messiah College invited JoyShop Ministries to come on campus as an alternative chapel on Nov. 4, 11, & 18. I am doing a two-hour session each Wednesday night and it will count as an alternate chapel for any students who choose to attend. If you know students who attend Messiah College, please encourage them to attend. On the 11th I will also be speaking before the workshop at a dinner for women sponsored by Student’s Ministries. The above picture is a snap shot of some of the students that attended on Nov. 4.

As the ministry continues to grow, so does our need for prayer partners. Often in my travels, a pastor or layperson will mention to me that I need to be building a strong prayer support for the ministry. In my mind, I had always felt that I didn’t want to ask others to pray for me because I felt that God would lay it on people’s hearts and they would just volunteer. To be sure, that has happened in the past, but the ministry team feels that we need to be more diligent in seeking prayer partners. If you would be interested in receiving prayer requests for the ministry as needs occur and are willing to pray for future events, please contact prayer@joyshop.org and your name will be added to our prayer team.

Blessings,
Anita

How to Pray for JoyShop:

 We have taken our first steps to begin production of a promotional DVD that can be sent ahead to future speaking engagements. Please pray for Shire Interactive as they work to pull this together. Our prayer is that God will use this in a strong way to move others to attend the workshop who might not have otherwise considered attending.
 Continue to pray that God will lead us to the place and timing for professionally taping a full JoyShop in a DVD format. He has put this in my heart so I know it will come to pass. This will take a tremendous amount of financing, but I am trusting God to meet those needs. I get excited thinking about how many more lives can be impacted through this form of media.
 Pray for upcoming events on December 3, when I will be speaking at Bible Baptist School in Shiremanstown, and on December 9 when I will be speaking at Kraybill Mennonite School.

Testimonies of JOY: Here are some encouraging words from people who recently attended a JoyShop:

“Obviously I was meant to be here this weekend to hear this message and stop making excuses that I don’t have time to spend with God. There hasn’t been a lot of joy in my life the past few years and I know the reason why. Thank you for giving me hope.”

“Today for the first time in almost 70 years, I started to journal, making notes of what I had read and how I felt God was speaking to me. I am excited to be able to continue, God willing. Pray for discipline to change my routine.”

“Awesome message! It was something I really needed to hear. I am so excited to begin the 21 Day Challenge! I can’t wait to know God more intimately. I feel that this is what has been lacking in my relationship with Him and I didn’t know how to fix it. How crazy when the answer is so simple—seek Him. Wow! How silly that I couldn’t figure that out. Thanks for sharing your message. I can’t wait to see how God is going to work in my life.”

And from a pastor: “Even though this has been my second JoyShop, it was a tremendous blessing. The message never gets old.”

Q & A:

Question: My mind always wanders when I pray … what can I do about that?

Answer: This is a problem that most of us struggle with. Keeping our minds focused on God during our prayer time takes practice and discipline. Prayer is two-fold: talking to God and listening to God. Have you ever noticed when you are having a conversation with someone, it is always easier to talk than to really listen? The same holds true with our conversations with God. It is so easy to talk and tell God what we are thinking or needing. But when it is time to be quiet and try to listen to what God might want to say to us, our mind begins to wander all over the place.

Here are a few suggestions that may help you:
 Simply acknowledge before God that you have a difficult time staying focused and ask Him to help you.
 When your mind begins to wander, tell yourself that you will think about that later and bring your mind back to being still and centered on God’s presence with you.
 Keep a pencil and paper by your side to write down anything that comes to your mind that you are afraid you will forget about.
 If someone or some situation comes to your mind, pray for that person or the situation.
 Write your prayers in a journal. Writing really helps you to focus.

I love reading prayers that others have written. For some reason, having a written prayer in front of me helps to keep me focused. A personal favorite is “Valley of Vision,” a book of prayers written by the Puritans of long ago. I also find it very helpful to keep my Bible open to the passage that I was reading and pray back to God the verses that spoke to me.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Anita

2009-10-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in October I had the privilege to take JoyShop to women in N.J. My daughter Carrie went along with me as a volunteer. (She is the one in the picture with me!) There were 50-60 women in attendence and the location was at Keswick America. We had a great weekend and I experienced great joy over being able to serve these women. Friday night was a bon-fire with smores to feast on, a highlight for me! The next morning as I was praying with the leadership team my mind kept wondering to those yummy smores which was a distraction. I wasn't sure how to get them out of my mind but God came to the rescue and said, "You should be thinking about "smore" of me instead of "smore" of chocolate. I almost started laughing. Now I find myself praying to God that I want "smore" of Him!

A few testimonies from the weekend:

"Thank you for pointing out how I need to read God's letter to me every day, same time and place. I've decided to take the 21 Day Challenge. Your message changed my view on being consistent with reading God's Word."

“Awesome message! It was something I really needed to hear. I am so excited to begin the 21 DC I can’t wait to know God more intimately. I feel that this is what has been lacking in my relationship with Him and I didn’t know how to fix it. How crazy when the answer is so simple—seek Him. Wow! How silly that I couldn’t figure that out. Thanks for sharing your message. I can’t wait to see how God is going to work in my life.”

“Today for the 1st time in almost 70 years I started to journal, making notes of what I had read and how I felt God was speaking to me. I am excited to be able to continue God willing. Pray for discipline to change my routine.”

“About 2-3 months ago I was struggling with morning devotions or any at all though I had done them for years. My closeness and purpose seemed to leave. I was told “Make me first in your life” several times. It was one of those nudging that wouldn’t go away. I am taking the challenge. I will listen now!”

“Obviously I was meant to be here this weekend to hear this message and stop making excuses that I don’t have time to spend with God. There hasn’t been a lot of joy in my life the past few years and I know the reason why. Thank you for giving me hope.”

“Thank you for being so persistent in guiding me to spend time daily with Christ. I know it was what I was missing in my life.”

“I really feel like you were speaking to me by the Holy Spirit. I feel challenged and hungry to seek God first everyday which I’m not very good at doing now … I have felt for a long time that even though I’ve been a Christian for a long time that something has been missing and I always have a feeling of unrest. I think seeking Him first is the answer.”

Praise God for ministering to these women and for their desire to know Him more intimately!

Please keep me in your prayers as I leave on Sunday for a pastor's and wives retreat. I will be doing a portion of JoyShop on Monday. I have three sessions and will have to eliminate something in my workshop. Pray that I will be able to discern which part to leave out. It's so hard for me to leave any of it out!

Ministry progress:
We have hired a local company to help us make a promotional dvd that can be sent out ahead of time to the places that have booked JoyShop. We are hoping that this investment will help drive more people to attend the event.

I still have a dream to have the workshop filmed in a 6 session format that could be used in Sunday School classes, small groups and retreat settings. Please pray for the Lord's timing on this. My timing was last year....but I am willing to wait for His best plan. He's always right!!!!

If you know anyone that attends Messiah College please spread the word to them that JoyShop is coming to their campus on November 4,11.18. I will be doing the workshop over 3 Wednesday nights. It will be at the Frey building, Room 110, from 7-9 p.m.

My husband, Paul, is still in a cast after breaking his ankle/leg while on vacation. He can not put any weight on it yet, so his lifestyle has changed dramatically. He has been using his time wisely, reading good books and watching Phillies and football:-)

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

Stay in the Word my friend. Growing close to Christ takes effort and time. But the benefits far outweigh any small sacrifice you might make.

In Him, Anita K

September Ministry Update

2009-09-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

Ministry Update September 2009
John 17:3
“Now this is eternal life that we may know Thee, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”

Recently I had an unexpected visitor at my front door. A friend of our family who I don’t see very often wanted to drop off some materials for our boys. As we got caught up on our lives and were sharing some of our personal struggles, she shared with me that she was not feeling God’s joy in her life right now. With tears in her eyes she expressed her discouragement. She also mentioned that when she looked at others who appeared to have the joy of the Lord it made her feel worse. I really appreciated her honesty as she shared she had attended a JoyShop years ago and she felt like I must feel God’s joy all the time even in difficulties. She wondered what was wrong with her. God did not seem to be answering her prayers. Where was this joy?

Who of us cannot say we have felt like that? The difficult realities that life brings us, makes it very hard to feel God’s presence, much less His joy. This past year I have had the “opportunity” to discover first hand how to walk in God’s joy in the midst of fears, trials, and doubts. Oswald Chambers states it best, “The only true joy is based on a personal relationship to God.” Why is it we tend to think joy is based on feelings rather that a relationship? Contrary to what people might think who see me in action during a JoyShop, I do not walk around daily “feeling” joyful! The joy I experience in my life comes from knowing who God is in my trials and walking in obedience to His Word regardless of how I feel or how things look.

If you get a chance this week do a short study on joy using the gospel of John. Read the following verses and the context in which you find these verses:
John 3:29, John 15: 11, John 16: 20-24, John 17:13
As you read these verses answer this question: What is the basis for joy according to Jesus?
I would love to share the answers but it will help you more if you find it yourself! But the bottom line is this: Jesus wants us to have His full and complete joy and it is based on our relationship to Him and not our present reality.

Ministry Update:
You will soon be receiving electronically the JoyShop Ministries Newsletter. After much thought, I have made the decision to combine the ministry update with the newsletter to simplify my load. So look for it sometime this month. It will give a report from my time at Roxbury Camp meeting in August and also tell you about upcoming opportunities for the ministry.

I praise God for the way He continues to use the ministry to encourage others. Recently a mother of a college student called to tell me that she was helping her daughter pack for college. Her daughter was having a hard time weeding out the books she could take because there wasn’t enough room to take everything she wanted. To the mother’s joy, her daughter made sure that her JoyShop binder went along with her to college! Praise God!! May the Lord use this young adult to impact her campus!

We also received an email from a pastor. A man from his congregation had given him a copy of my book and suggested he read it! After reading it he felt the Lord prompting him to invite me to share at his church on a Sunday morning. The ministry continues to rely on God to open the doors where He wants us to serve so I praise His Name for being faithful.

September and February are months I try really hard to block off vacation time from the ministry. Of course here I am writing an update … but I did want to share about the newsletter that will be replacing the ministry update as well as to ask you to pray for JoyShop Ministries Board of Directors and the meeting we will have on September 29. We are looking forward to all that God will do in 2010 and sincerely desire His direction as we make plans for the future. We are in a transition time as terms are expiring for existing board members and having the need to find replacements. Several members have been with me from the beginning so it is scary to say goodbye to them. I will miss them but I thank God for lending them to me for a period of time and helping us to lay a strong foundation for the ministry. We are looking to update the website as well so that will bring some exciting changes!

My deep thanks and appreciation for each of you who continue to support this ministry in various ways. It gives me the encouragement to keep moving forward with the strength that God provides. YOU ARE A BLESSING TO ME!

Walking in His JOY,
Anita

FYI: The above picture is of me and my friends on our husbands motorcycles as we toured through Novia Scotia and PEI last month. Can you tell which one is my sister?

Ministry Update July 23, 2009

2009-07-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

Ministry Update July 23, 2009

John 16:33
“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

This morning in my quiet time with Jesus, I was thinking about the word peace. My heart felt troubled about some circumstances and I needed peace. I began to look up verses in John that mention peace. Jesus first mentions peace in John 14:27 when he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you … do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid.” Why is it hard to feel peace in the midst of trouble? How does one experience mental calm and tranquility in the midst of troubling circumstances? Why is it that we even think we should be exempt from trouble?

As I pondered the above verses I was reminded the Christ came into this world and died for my sins so that I could know eternal peace here and now as well for all eternity. I may have troubles here on this earth but I have hope! The apostle Paul got it right when he spoke these words in Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus is our peace, joy and hope in the midst of our troubles. Praise his Name!!!

I can’t believe it’s been two months since I sent my last update but I decided to give myself a little break over the summer. None the less JoyShop Ministries is still bearing fruit over these summer months and I am going to share some of the encouraging responses we recently received.

Through Facebook:
"Hello! I don’t know if you remember me, but you came to my school in the fall last year, 2008. I just wanted to let you know that you really inspired me with the 21 day challenge!
Since the retreat in the fall, I decided that I would read my Bible, cover to cover. I have been reading two chapters from the Bible each day. I really appreciate you for helping me realize that I needed more time with God. Thank you so very much!

From the Pocket Testament League:
“I love the gospel of John, it is my favorite book in the whole Bible … Your 21 day challenge gave me new insights to think about. Thank you.”

“I ACHIEVED THE 21 DAY CHALLENGE. I MEDITATED ON THE VERSES AND USED THEM IN MY DAILY WORKING HOURS AND HARDSHIP TIMES. I ENJOYED THE 21 DAY CHALLENGE. IT GIVES ME THE OPPORTUNITY TO TESTIFY TO OTHERS ABOUT DOING SOMETHING FOR 21 DAYS FOR CHRIST”

“As a Pastor it has been a great tool that I can now ad to my other teachings. I have a very similar one that I prepared years ago. But now It’s time for a change and I will be using your 21 Day Challenge on the next months Bible class with the new converts. I Pastor a Spanish Church, therefore my task now is to translate the challenge into Spanish so that I could be able to use it to prepare the new converts.”

Women’s Retreat participant:
“Way back on April of this year you came to speak at our Women's Retreat. It was a spiritual life-changing experience. God had me in a place of desiring more and searching for a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Him. Your testimony and sharing the principles of seeking God, being consistent, and getting up early to meet with Him catapulted my spiritual walk. I am passionate about rising early (even on Sundays) and meeting with my Savior. Digging into God's love letter to me is transforming my relationship with Him. I have a new mission field…the grocery store…and everywhere I go. I find myself unable to restrain the joy of the Lord and share your key principles that I learned.”

This young woman and her friend ended up hosting an event at their church to share what the Lord has taught them as a result of Seeking God First and doing the 21 Day Challenge. Over 100 women attended! Praise the Lord for spreading the message through these women.

From my time at Lydia Center
“I just wanted you to know that one of our ladies received Christ the weekend you visited us. She said your presentation really touched her and moved her towards Christ.”

The past two Wednesday evenings I have spoken to the teen girls that were attending Black Rock Retreat. One response I received through Facebook:

"Hi, I just wanted to say that I was at Black Rock last week and I loved to hear about your story! And there were some things that really hit me and I loved your analogy about talking to God everyday to get to know him. Thanks!!"

I continue to thank the Lord for opening the doors where He has prepared hearts to hear the message.

Please keep me in your prayers as I take JoyShop to Roxbury Holiness Campmeeting the week of August 1-9. I will be holding four daily sessions from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. They will be doing an audio taping of each session. Pray that the Holy Spirit will speak through me in such a way that those who listen by audio will be inspired to Seek God First!

Thursday night, July 30, 7:00 p.m. JoyShop Ministries will be hosting a praise, prayer, and soft serve ice-cream event at my home. I will be sharing a brief update of the ministry with a focus on prayer for future speaking events. Hope to see ya!

In His service,
Anita

Ministry Update May 20, 2009

2009-05-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

Ministry Update May 18, 2009

Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed…”

Dear friends of JoyShop Ministries,

April and May have been busy months coming off of a month sabbatical! In all I presented two full JoyShops, spoke at three women’s spring banquets, and drove to Reading to speak to a youth group mid week. Only one event to go, a mini-JoyShop at Lydia Center on May 29th, and then I have off all of June. God gave me the strength to complete the previous commitments that I had made and I am learning to let go of the “behind the scenes” decisions that have bogged me down in the past and trust the Lord to bring to pass what He desires. I read in my devotional this morning that REST equals TRUST! I am striving to rest in God’s will for JoyShop Ministries.

My schedule is pretty much booked full for the rest of 2009 and into May of 2010. We certainly don’t have to look for places to go … praise the Lord! I am particularly excited about a woman’s weekend retreat in April of 1010 that I have been invited to do a JoyShop. It came from a college student involved with Campus Crusade at Penn College. They partner with several other colleges and universities for this retreat. I do marvel how God is allowing the ministry to reach all ages since it is just too hard for me to target one specific age group. My target audience remains The Church no matter the age!

Continue to pray for the many people who have responded to the message of SEEKING GOD FIRST. The rest of this ministry update is personal testimonies that were sent to me either through the web site, mail or Facebook.

From several women who attended recent JoyShops:

“I just wanted to contact you and let you know how your message has changed my life!”

“For about the past 6 months I have felt a strong desire to seek the Lord more fervently - I so much desire more of Him in my life. I have been reading the Bible for years but more often than not my reading was more to see how many passages I could read vs. reading just one chapter at a time and really studying it. Your approach with the 21-day challenge really resonated with me and has made a huge difference in my times with the Lord each morning. I liked the simplicity of your "message" and that the challenge you present is attainable, for everyone. Everything you said I knew but needed to be reminded of. You confirmed so many things that I have been "hearing". This retreat was so timely and at times I felt like you were there just for me! But after talking with other women who were at the retreat I know I was not the only one who was very blessed by it.”

“It’s difficult to even put into words what your workshop meant to me this past weekend. I have been so impacted by your message since the first time I heard it that I just had to do what I could to bring it to those in my church …Your workshop at Moore's Chapel in April was amazing and impacted so many people.”

“Just wanted to let you know how much Joy Shop has changed my life. I have been spending time with God first each morning since you spoke at Hempfield BIC. So from the bottom of my heart I want to say Thank You for what you are doing to further God’s kingdom . You have been a Blessing to me. Thanks …”

From a woman that attended one of the banquets this month:

"Your message was so inspiring last night at Grantham. Thanks again for coming and sharing so honestly and with great vulnerability. I'm ready for the 21-day challenge!!!"

I stumbled upon this message somehow on face book:
“I was really challenged and energized by Anita's message....if you ever get to hear one of her JoyShop workshops - run, don't walk!”

“Just thought I'd share a story that came to me after church today. A friend of mine who attended your workshop held at our church two years ago told me that yesterday was her "two year anniversary" of spending daily time with God--as a direct result of the conference. Blessings to you in your ministry!”
A man from my home church who attended a JoyShop a year ago recently came up to me and shared that he has been seeking God first consistently since the workshop. Tears whelmed up in his eyes and a few escaped down his cheek as he shared how meaningful his time with God has become!
I was also touched by a letter I received in the mail from a 12/13 year old girl who is homeschooled and had attended a recent banquet that I had spoken at. She wrote:
“I wanted to tell you how much your talk meant to me. When my mom would write up my list of assignments to complete for the day, devotions was one of them. I would read one chapter then close m y Bible and do nothing about it. But your talk influenced me to do more. I got one of your journals and I am doing the 21 Day Challenge. I’m on day 9 and progressing through John. What would you suggest I do next? I would really like to hear back from you.”
WOW! Doesn’t that just bless your heart?
Concerning the Pocket Testament league I received word that three more people joined the league because of JoyShop Ministries. They were people who live in California, Florida and Pennsylvania! I also received a note in the mail from a lady who was rather excited to share with me how the Lord is giving her courage to hand out pocket testaments.
May God receive the glory for all He is doing through this ministry to bring His children into closer intimacy with Him. It really is all about Him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would be grateful for any prayers for protection over the ministry and my family. Thank you so much!

In Christ, Anita

PS The picture above was taken at Grantham BIC Church with my mother, one of my sister's-Sylvia, and my two daugthers, Shelly and Carrie.

Update April 13 2009

2009-04-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

Ministry Update April 10, 2009

I Samuel 30:6
“…But David found strength in the LORD his God.”

Dear friends and supporters of JoyShop Ministries: Thank you so much for your prayers this past month. I had no idea how much I needed to rest! With out the support of my family, friends, and doctor the journey would have been more challenging but God has taught me a lot during this time. The key phrases I have heard Him say over and over are:
Be STILL
Be QUIET
Be RESTFUL
Be TRUSTFUL

I praise God that the doctor gave me permission to return to my ministry commitments if I promised to rest in between speaking engagements. This past weekend was my first time to speak in two months. The Lord graciously allowed me to serve 60+ women in a retreat setting without any anxiety and I can honestly say His JOY just filled me up as He enabled me to exhort these precious women. It was a weekend that I know will bear fruit for a long time! Here are a few sample responses the ministry received:

“Thank you! This was so encouraging and life changing. I have not had a consistent quiet time since my sophomore year of high school. I am so excited to learn more of my Father and draw into deeper intimacy with Him…I have started the 21 Day Challenge.”

“I am so glad I came to hear this because I really need this in my life.”

“Thank you for reminding me how important it is to spend time with God. I needed this jumpstart again.”

“I have promised God to challenge myself every day to start my day with Him.”

“Praise God for this ministry … I have been struggling with complacency and boredom with God’s Word, (now who could imagine that???) Well, no more of that thanks to your message!”

“Third time for a JoyShop. Always amazing!”

“This workshop was an awesome answer to prayer. Honestly, I was afraid months ago that this would be a “fluffy” week with little substance. How wrong I was…this weekend I have realized that when I have deep intimacy with God, it will spill over into all areas of my life.”

In particular was the blessing of hearing from several women about their teens who had heard my message back in December when I spoke to their youth group. They each told me that their teens are still getting up early having time alone with God. One mom shared that it put her to shame and so she got back on track of having devotional time with God!

God is still actively using the 21 Day Challenge to impact lives through the Pocket Testament League as well. I recently received this testimony from the League that came to their website:

“I was going through hard times and I was staying in a hotel in Hershey with my wife and kids and I took my kids to the complimentary breakfast that they offered and someone that I didn't even know blessed me with this booklet. I was going to throw it away, but God knows what he does. I kept it and as time past my times were just getting harder. I forgot that I had this booklet until one day something told me to go through my bag and I found this booklet. I started reading this booklet(pocket testament) called “Letters From God” and it changed my life. Today on April 9, 2009, is the day that I just finished the 21 day challenge and I can tell you that it really changed my life. If I would have known that this was going to change my way of feeling, my way of thinking, and my way of looking at the Lord I would have read this when I got it 5 months ago.”
I don’t know who it was but someone was prompted by the Holy Spirit to hand this man one of our pocket testaments that has the 21 Day Challenge printed in the back and months later Jesus’ Words transformed his life!

We received this message through our web site concerning my book:
“I have read your book and appreciate your candor concerning all that you went through and all that the Lord taught you through that difficult time … Our book club has selected your book to read this spring.”

This response came from a Christian woman who lives in Delaware that I happened to meet by the pool while on vacation in Florida! God truly does “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,” for his glory!

I have so many other stories I could share about divine appointments this past couple of months but I can feel my adrenaline level rising from just sharing with you these marvelous works of God and I am learning I need to control this. Can you believe that adrenaline rushes causes good stress which actually raises your anxiety???? Friends this is my problem … encouraging people to get in the Word in order to cultivate intimacy with God brings me a huge rush and I become over stimulated!!! I am asking Jesus to help me learn how to manage this so that I don’t burn out.

As I bring this update to a close, please remember to pray for the following events scheduled this month:
A Community JoyShop this coming weekend, April 17-18, in the Elkton/North East area. An outreach brunch in the Philadelphia area on April 25.

In His Service, Anita

March 18, 2009

2009-03-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

Ministry Update March 18, 2009

Isaiah 43:1-5
“But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior … Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, and I have loved you …Fear not, for I am with you…”

From my last ministry update you are aware that Paul and I took a much needed vacation. We headed to Florida to hopefully find some warmer weather. We actually hit a great week and enjoyed relaxing at our resort with friends and taking in a view activities like Epcot. Paul and I had packed a case of my books to take along in case we ran into anyone who might appreciate it and we able to hand a few out. This was our unofficial way of marketing the book!

We also had the privilege of eating Sunday dinner in Arcadia, Florida, with my birthdaughter, Twila, and her wonderful family. Since it was there 14th wedding anniversary, she cooked us the same meal that they had at their wedding reception. It was delicious. No doubt she gets her cooking skills from her mother not her birth mom!

What we weren’t expecting to happen while on vacation was the beginning onset of me experiencing what I would call anxiety attacks. These were scary to me in that I wasn’t sure what was going on. But even in my uncertainties and desire to get home to figure out what was going on God allowed us to have several divine appointments on the beach. One with a 45 year old mother by the name of Alison,who had adopted two children and who herself is adopted. We made an instant connection. She was planning to start writing her own book of her journey and so I gave her a copy of my book. We had much to talk about as we sat on the beach together.

Joe and Deb Risser (pictured above) joined us during our second week which was very helpful in light of what I was experiencing physically. Deb is my administrative assistant and we both realized that I was partially experiencing over exhaustion from my intensive ministry schedule and anxiety over my busy spring schedule. For some reason in my passion for encouraging others to seek God I thought I was super woman and pushed my self to the max. Of course it doesn’t help that as a 52 year old I am going through pre-menopause!

Once home, I went to my medical docter and he recommended that I take a complete month off from the ministry. This was a difficult thing for me to cancel scheduled events but my body and mind were clearly speaking loudly to me that I needed rest.
My goal over this month long sabbitical is to take time to experience personal, spiritual, and emotional renewal.

Please pray for the board and myself during these next couple of months that God would give us clear direction as to what necessary changes are needed to keep my life and ministry more balanced. I think I overdosed on JoyShop:-)

I have really enjoyed having more time with my family and a little more leisure and rest. I have even had time to actually cook meals for my family! JoyShop Ministries is still functioning and Lord willing, I am planning to get back into the swing of things in April
!
Praise God that even though I feel the need to slow down God continues to use my book as an instrument to encourage others and I continue to hear stories of how others are spreading the 21 Day Challenge to family and friends!

Just recently I received a message from a student that is pregnant:

“I barely know you but after reading your book I kind of know how you feel. I'm still carrying my baby and not due for another two months and I have days when I don't want to give him up but I want to thank you because listening to you and reading your book has given me strength in a whole different level. And I want to thank you so much for that. I wish I could do what you do and help teens like me understand that they can't just take God for granted and the boundaries he sets for us do mean something and we need to listen! But once again I admire you a lot and I hope God blesses me through this like he did to you and keep doing what your doing because your changing lives when you speak about his love to us and I think every kid that hears you remembers you no matter what because you have such a gift from God to help change lives anyways thanks a lot and God bless!”

From another young person who read my book:
“…at some parts of it I felt like I was reading part of my story … being a little wild and some sexual sins …I finally realized that I am not the only one going through that kinda of stuff. I know this sounds silly and stupid but I just wanted to say thanks for sharing, and being strong …please know that you r in my prayers. love ya”

Received this heart breaking message as well:
“I just found out 2 wks ago I am pregnant … I need your prayers thanks.”

Please pray for these two dear young girls who are experiencing these unplanned pregnancies and the consequences that follow. I know they each love Jesus and need to know He is with them and they need not fear. (Isaiah 43:1-5)

I also received a story from the Pocket Testament League of a member who joined as a result of our ministry. This woman from Lancaster handed out 6 pocket testaments to different patrons of a restaurant she regularly visits. One man responded, "I need God. I need to get saved." He has agreed to attend an Alpha course at her church. Stories like this thrill my heart!

I covet your prayers during my ministry break and thank you for your continual support. Even though I have had to endure some dark times much new growth has come and I praise God for his faithfulness even though I could not feel His presence at times. If anyone reading this is going through a time of uncertainty hang on to the sure promise of God, “Fear not, for I am with you.”

Seeking God,

Anita

volunteer day

2009-02-05T17:27:00.000-08:00

These wonderful volunteers of JoyShop Ministries give many hours to putting together our binders, pocket testaments, and bookmarks. Pictured are Gene and Sherilyn Schock, Kay Risser, Jill Shenk, Brenda Longsderff, and Deb Risser.

February 2009 Ministry Update

2009-02-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

Ministry Update February 5, 2009

RESTING IN JESUS
II Chronicles 20:15
“…Thus says the Lord to you: Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

How many of you are facing a huge battle right now? Do you feel like a vast multitude has come against you? Does fear overtake you at times? Do waves of hopelessness sweep over your heart? If you can relate to any of these statements then I encourage you to pick up your Bible and read II Chronicles 20:1-30. There is no greater example of how to face our battles then King Jehoshaphat’s. He was scared out of his mind as a vast army was coming against him yet in his fear he set himself to seek the Lord. At this moment I am fighting the impulse to share with you the action steps he took, but that would rob you of the joy of discovering it for your self! So I want to encourage each of you to look up this passage in scripture and grab a piece of paper. Note what the king and his people did in response to the challenge they were facing. Once you discover this wonderful example you will return to it again and again when you face insurmountable problems or even the small trials of life. It is a fail proof plan! This Old Testament story has taught me how to enter into the rest of Jesus during the most difficult of times. Our flesh just loves to try to fix things and if we can’t fix it then we carry the burden of it on our shoulders. But verse 17 gives an incredible solution, “You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you…Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.” What powerful words of promise!

The reason we have so much stress is that we refuse to rest in Christ with our burdens and concerns. We cry out for help but forget the battle is not ours to fight. The flesh has a hard time of letting go….I should know….it happens to me often! We daily pick up the weight of the problem instead of positioning ourselves to trust God. He asks us to stand still in His peace and watch Him take care of our situation. He is always walking ahead of us in loving care and it pleases Him when we choose to praise him and worship Him in spite of how things look or how we feel. “Oh what needless peace we forfeit. Oh what needless pain we bare all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” May Jehoshaphat’s example give you peace in whatever battle you may be facing at this time.

January was a great month of ministry. We were able to hold 3 full workshop’s in different parts of the state.

Highlights from our time at Riverhill Evangelical Church:
SNOW!!! Lots of it! Paula Frey and I traveled four and a half hours to Clarion, Pa. As we settled into our hotel, it was hard to imagine that anyone would show up for the JoyShop with all the snow. They must be use to that kind of weather or something because the turnout wasn’t bad! Our coldest adventure was Sunday morning on our way to the church service. The temperature was minus 6 degrees. Paula rolled down the car window to help clear off some of the snow. The window mechanism was so cold she could not get the window back up. We drove 4 miles with the freezing air coming in our window. Once in the church parking lot we were able to inch the window up ever so slowly. We were sure not to roll down any more windows that trip! Amidst all the snow however, we were able to serve this precious congregation. As I shared my testimony in the Sunday morning service, I noticed a 10 year old boy snuggled up by his mother. He was very attentive. After church it was so neat to see him back at our table picking up his own 21 Day Challenge Journal. He was all smiles. How I pray that he uses his pocket testament to get to know Jesus Christ better.

I had the unexpected JOY of being ministered to by the people in attendance for the last session Sunday afternoon. At the pastor’s suggestion, they formed a prayer circle around me and prayed for the ministry. I began to cry as I sensed God’s embrace through their prayers. No one had known how emotionally and physically drained I had been going into the JoyShop but the Lord had mercy on me and His strength was made perfect in my weakness. Their prayers were such an encouragement to me.

Our weekend at Heidelberg Church in Slatington went very well. Jan Kamp traveled with me Friday night to get a head start for the all day JoyShop on Saturday. We had a lovely dinner with our host couple and were able to set up in the church that night. Saturday was a full day. Approximately 50 were in attendance. Many people shared with me later that it was just what they had needed. I was thrilled to discover that one person committed their life to Jesus Christ during the workshop!

This was a first….usually I push the time limit to the max. The scheduled time was 9-3:00 p.m. At least that was the time I had on my program. I managed to wrap the workshop up at 3:05 p.m. A lady raised her hand at the end and told me that her church bulletin said it was going to last until 4:00. She wondered if I could share more! I was so dumb founded by this unexpected opportunity that I couldn’t think of anything else to say!!!!

Other areas that have been impacted by JoyShop Ministries:
I received this message from a youth pastor who had invited me to do JoyShop with his youth at a summer retreat:

“We are still holding people to the concept of your 21 day challenge from last summer at Charter Hall! God has truly blessed us from our time spent together.”

Pocket Testament League published this “Story of the Month”:
“A friend of mine invited me to do the 21-Day Challenge and I am truly growing closer to Jesus Christ each and every day. I want to share my experience with others and want to share these 10 copies of the Gospel of John with friends and family during the holiday season so they too can become closer to Jesus Christ through his words of truth. Thank you.”

Praise the Lord! These words just make my heart sing! This is truly what the 21 Day Challenge is all about, growing closer to Jesus Christ!

February is the month that my husband, Paul and I block out for vacation. We enjoy the break from work and ministry and thank the Lord we can get away for a time of refresment. Ministry work gets back into full swing as we head to Texas in March! Thank you for your prayers on behalf of the ministry as we partner together to encourage others! Love, Anita K

2009-01-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

JOY IN JESUS

John 15:11
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

With the holidays being past us now, and the post-Christmas sales tempting us to buy for next year, the one reoccurring word that I continue to see in the stores is the powerful little word JOY. What is joy? Webster defines it as, “exhilaration of spirits: gladness: to rejoice or be glad.” As I have pondered this word over and over in my mind, a feeling of God’s presence swells up in my soul. As followers of Christ, we know that true JOY can only come in the person of Jesus Christ. He is our joy! Gladness comes from having a personal relationship with Him. When one reads John 15 and comes to verse 11, one has to ask the question, “What things has Christ told us in the preceding verses so that we know how to have His complete joy?” The answer is found in a repeated phrase He uses over and over in the first 11 verses, “Remain in me.” It’s that simple. If we truly want the complete joy of Christ within us then we must make a conscious effort to remain in Him moment by moment in our day. How can we do this in practicality? Well, I am still learning how to remain in Him on a daily basis, but for now it all begins by starting my morning soaking in His presence through prayer and meditation on His life giving Words. After I have enjoyed time alone with Jesus, I continue to practice His presence by consciously talking with Him through out the day.

However, at times personal pain and problems can distract me throughout my day in to thinking that I can’t have joy during a difficult or challenging time, but the truth of the matter is that we all can have the joy of Jesus within our souls even during the darkest of times. Why? Because Jesus is joy. He is our life. He is our peace. He is our burden-bearer. He is our comforter. He is our strength. HE IS OUR EVERYTHING! So if any of you are going through a trying time and have lost the joy you once had, focus all your energies on Jesus and who He is. Spend extra time in the Word. Claim His promises. Rehearse them through the day. Remind your self that it is okay to have uncertainties. But trust Jesus to be enough for what ever you are facing. Know that as long as you have Him as your main focus, His joy will be constant in your soul, even though things might appear to be falling apart on the outside!

I love surprises from God and today He had a good one! My daughter, Carrie, kicked me out of my own house today to host a group of employees from Water Street Rescue Mission for a retreat day. I knew that I needed to work on this ministry update so I grabbed my lap top and headed to Panero’s Bread to meet my son, Josh, for lunch. The plan was to eat lunch and then to stay at Panero’s and work on the ministry letter.
The place was so crowded that I was worried I wouldn’t find a place to sit. There was only one place that was open and that was a small table sandwiched between two other tables. There was a man at each table and I felt kind of stupid to move in between them but I had no choice. The one man was working intently on his lap top and the other man had just sat down to eat. Even though I did not see any food in front of this man it appeared that he was bowing his head to pray for a blessing over his food. I couldn’t help but be excited that maybe we would have the opportunity to talk about spiritual things should a conversation open up. However, as it turned out, at closer examination, the man was not praying but typing on his blackberry! So there went that idea down the tubes. Josh showed up shortly after that observation, and he offered to pray over our time of food and fellowship. He prayed the sweetest prayer and I couldn’t help but wonder what these men might be thinking since we were practically sitting in their laps! Not that it mattered, it’s just you want your life to shine for Jesus and to bring Him glory and to see a young man praying in a public place speaks volumes in my mind. Now here is the surprise, as soon as Josh finished praying, the man who had been working at his computer commented that he couldn’t help but over hear Josh’s prayer and he preceded to let us know that he was of like mind, a follower of Jesus Christ, and he really appreciated Josh’s prayer. Since Josh prayed over my ministry, he asked about my ministry. This led to the discovery that he was a man with a ministry as well. Turns out that the man sitting beside us was none other than Dr. Walt Mueller, President of Center For Parent/Youth Understanding! I have heard him numerous times on the radio and have always appreciated the way his ministry serves the body of Christ. Josh and I both felt blessed by this surprise encounter. The things that impressed me the most about him in our brief encounter was his humility and his stand for the truth of God’s Word. As we both spent the rest of the afternoon working at our lap tops each trying to accomplish goals we had set out to do that day for our prospective ministries, I couldn’t help but thank the Lord for the way he takes each of us with our particular passions and uses it to help encourage and serve the body of Christ. We need each other! May God fill us all with His Holy Spirit, anointing us and empowering us to each to do our part in impacting our own world.

Well, I had better get to the ministry update!

Youth Quest,the Brethren In Christ conference for teens across America, was held in Washington, D.C. Dec. 27-30. My husband, Paul, and a volunteer, Kay Risser, traveled with me in preparation for a new adventure and I was so grateful for their prayer support. We were one of 10 workshops that the 800 youth could choose from. Praise God for the 140+ youth that felt drawn to our workshop. Many youth and leaders came up to me afterwards to thank me for the encouragement the workshop had been to them. Two young men emailed me later with the following messages:

From Canada:
“Hi! I met you at Youth Quest and I sat in on your seminar. It helped me and today I started the 21 day challenge. I had a friend who quit reading her Bible. I found this out on Dec. 24. I wrote her a letter to try to get her back into reading her Bible. She started reading her Bible before I came home from Youth Quest. I asked her to do the 21 day challenge and she has accepted the offer so thanks…”

A few days later he sent me another email wondering how he could get me to Canada to minister to his youth group! Praise God for the many young people who have a true passion to know Christ and want to grow in their relationship to Him and help others as well.

From the states:
“I really loved your seminar at youthquest!!!! I’m going to start your 21 day challenge plus use the notebook!!!"

After receiving these emails, I was so excited that I printed them out and went out to my kitchen to share it with the 8 teens/young adults who were playing Uno around my kitchen table. The reason I wanted to share these praises with them is because I was under such heavy mental attack from the enemy while doing one of my sessions that I could only sing God’s praises that He could work through me in spite of what was going on inside of my mind! After sharing with them I asked if they would remember to pray for JoyShop Ministries and for me personally that I would continue to have the energy and zeal that is necessary for ministry as well as stand firm against any attacks from the enemy. Specifically I asked for their prayers in that I desire God to continue to anoint the words that proceed from my mouth for His glory and exaltation. What a blessing to have my daughter, Shelly, speak up and suggest that they all gather around me right then and pray. I felt so blessed to be surrounded by these godly young people, as they laid their hands on me and prayed to God on my behalf. Another surprise gift from God!

On Sunday, January 4, I began my ministry at Hempfield Brethern In Christ Church. I shared my testimony during the morning worship hour, grateful for the opportunity to reach those who might not attend the workshop in the evenings. Now the challenge before me was that Sunday night was my first session and I was in competition with the big Eagles game. But I knew that God is larger and more powerful than football, and He did not disappoint me. Seventy people showed up that night! One man even showed up wearing his Eagles jersey!There is so much I could share with you that God did during the three nights I was there serving, unfortunately I can only mention a few.

Received these messages from teens through facebook:
"Thank you so much for coming to my church. It was my first time seeing you and I loved you. I have started the 21 day challenge and I do it at night but I wake up
when I am out at my bus stop. I am praying until I get to school and spending time with God.
Thanks soo much! You have blessed me and have helped me to search for God more than I use to…and the past couple of days have been great since I have been seeking God.
Also thanks for caring so much about all of us teens. God bless!”

From a male teen:
"Anita, I just wanted to thank you so much for doing your joyshop at my church these last two days! I'm so glad that you are here and I think this will have an amazing influence on our church as whole. Thank you! You are such an encouragement to me!"

What blessed me about the above email is that this young man and his sister had already attended a JoyShop when I did it for their school retreat yet he and his sister wanted to do it again! In fact they found JoyShop so helplful that they invited their grandparents to come and they attended all three nights. I only know this because the grandparents told me!

Praise God, there was even a sweet little 10 year old girl who attended the JoyShop with her father, who came up to me to thank me. She loved my story and the points I made. She attended with her father two of the three nights. I am so grateful to God for allowing me to share a message that is simple enough for a 10 year old!!!!

The testimonies we receive are such a blessing! Yes, we love hearing how the Lord is using JoyShop Ministries to impact lives but the part we love best is knowing that the participants will fall deeper in love with Jesus if they choose to practice the principles set before them in the JoyShop. Sometimes I struggle with sharing some of these testimonies because JoyShop Ministries does not want any glory. It is all for Him. He is the one who anoints and empowers a ministry. So we boast in Him alone!

Please continue to pray for upcoming JoyShops this month. We will be at Riverhill Evangelical Church in Shippenville, Pa, which is four hours away the weekend of January 17-18. Paula Frey will be traveling with me for this event. Then on January 31, we will be at Heilelberg Church in Slatington, Pa., for a one day JoyShop.

Recently, a pastor from the Harrisburg area strongly suggested that I continue to build a larger prayer base around this ministry. We all know that the enemy of our souls stands apposed to any ministry that encourages intimacy with Jesus Christ. It is Christ in us that changes this world and Satan would like nothing more then to keep the world in darkness and depression. If you feel a quickening in your heart to pray for the work of JoyShop Ministries please contact Deb Risser at deb@joyshop.org and she will forward your name on to our prayer coordinator, Twila Shertzer. You will be put on our prayer team and will receive reminders to pray for upcoming events as well as any specific emergency needs as they arise.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am blessed to have so much support. The JoyShop Team consists of many volunteers that give of their time and I want to publicly thank the following individuals who gave of their time this past week in helping to assemble the JoyShop binders for future events: Kay Risser, Deb Risser, Twila Shertzer, Gene and Sherilyn Schock, Jill Shenk, Brenda Longsderff, and my parents, Gerald and Lucille Wingert.

I encourage each of you to continue to set your heart on seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ so that He can use you to be Christ to those around you.

Our God is an Awesome God!

Anita K.

Ministry Update December 4 2008

2008-12-06T07:15:00.000-08:00

Ministry Update December 4, 2008

Praise the Lord of Hosts. For the Lord is good. For His mercy endures forever.”
Jeremiah 33:11

Some days seem easier to praise the Lord of Hosts than others. When the concerns of daily living or inward battles drown out the attitude of praise we have to fight all the harder to maintain the desire to praise our Lord of Hosts. I continue to be amazed at how God becomes our strength in our weakness when we honestly admit our struggle and choose to rest in Him.

Such was my case last night as I drove to Mechanicsburg Brethren In Christ to speak with the youth there. I felt weak, drained, and questioned in my mind my ability to serve Him with any effectiveness. But the Lord is good and his mercies endure forever and so he had arranged for support ahead of time through the volunteer that went with me, Rita Simmons, and the youth staff and leadership of the church. As they gathered around me in prayer before the evening started I could thank God that when I am weak then he is strong. And the beauty of feeling weak is that fact of what Paul knew to be true, “Therefore I will boast in my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” His power, praise his Name, was over my weakness, and I could stand before this precious group of youth and proclaim God’s desire for them to know Him.

When I returned home late last night there was already a message for me through face book from one of the youth:

"Hi Anita, I was at McBic tonight where you spoke and was really blessed by your words. I can't wait to start the 21 day challenge tomorrow! Thanks for taking the time to come speak."

One of the youth leaders sent a message as well saying how JoyShop Ministries has impacted her marriage:

I pray blessings over your life and ministry and family! Thank you for pushing through, for fighting the good fight of faith! My marriage has also been blessed by your journal!

So praise God for his mercy over the ministry time at Mechanicsburg BIC church. Pray for all the people that will be starting the 21 DC today. Pray that they will become more hungry for God and in that hunger discover how much God truly loves them.

Update on November ministry

November 7 Ignite Young Adult gathering
Praise God for the good turn out. There were close to 80 or more students in attendance. What a privilege to pray with the leadership there before the event began. God blessed our time together and I know that many lives were impacted. One young lady sent me the following message the next day:

“I did exactly what you said this morning. I woke up and I really didn't want to get out of bed. But my friend and I last night promised we would, like you said "milk" this thing out as long as we could. So I threw off my covers and did it. You're right, it really makes a difference. I'm awake and ready to start my day. Thank you again Anita!”

On November 12 I had a group of about 15 young teenage girls and 2 hours to share the message of JSM and I trust God that He accomplished what was needed with that group.

My time at Mount Olivet United Brethren In Church went well on November 23. Paul and my parents traveled with me. It was a small congregation of 25 people! I was truly blessed to be able to serve them and was thrilled to receive a message from the only teenager that was there thanking me for coming! She said she read my book that afternoon.

One unexpected blessing I had this month was to visit my birth daughter, Twila, and her family in Florida. I think the picture attached to this post speaks for itself!

Two last testimonials I want to share have to do with the lasting impact of our message of seeking God first. We received a donation for the ministry and a note from a previous JoyShop attender years ago:

“Taking your JoyShop class has changed my devotional time, to be more meaningful for me. Thanks for all your work in helping fellow Christians to get into the Word of God and to know Him better.”

Recently I ran into a man who had attended a JoyShop two years ago and he commented, "I am still going strong with my daily quiet time. It has strengthened my relationship with my wife and children. God has become my friend through out my day." Yahoo!!! Praise the Name of Jesus!

Friends of the ministry, this should totally bring JOY to your heart. I pray that the Lord allows this work of His to continue and that we can be faithful to complete the work He has called us to. Please use these ministry updates as a reminder to pray for the lives being impacted by the ministry of God’s Word. God is calling forth the Bride of Christ to rise up into a deeper level of intimacy with Him so that we can show that we are His disciples by the love we demonstrate to those around us and the unity we walk in as brothers and sisters of Christ.

Prayer Requests:

Please pray for an anointing over our time at Youth Quest December 27-30, in Washington, DC. We are looking forward to this opportunity to serve the youth of the Brethren In Christ. Pray that God will be preparing the hearts for our message and that His Holy Spirit would supernaturally draw the youth who need our message the most to our workshop. It is one of many workshops that they can choose to attend.

Next week I will be interviewed over the phone for a future article in the Brethren In Christ quarterly magazine, “In Part.” This opportunity came about as a result of our time of ministry at the BIC headquarters in October. Pray that I will be able to adequately exalt His Name and His Word not JoyShop Ministries. In my zeal and passion for the call God has placed on my life I can unintentionally forget the true purpose I and this ministry exist for - HIM! So please continue to cover me in prayers. I never want to do anything that would dishonor His Name or His word.

Thank you for your partnership in this ministry! May God’s blessings overflow in your life today. From my home to yours – MERRY CHRISTMAS

With Love

Anita

Additional story if you want to take the time to read it

Last night after I was done speaking I had the opportunity to speak with a young woman who is an exchange student from Honduras. She told me she has devotions every morning but she struggles with staying awake. Did I have any suggestions to help her? I tried to comfort her with the fact that God is pleased to see her heart in wanting to spend time with Him first thing in the morning and that it was okay if she falls asleep now and then. As we talked further I discovered why she battled sleep so much…she was trying to have her devotions in bed! I couldn’t help but laugh with her and tell her it is no wonder she falls asleep during her quiet time! The solution is to get out of bed. She said it is so hard to get out from under her warm blankets. I gave her a verse to help her from Hebrews 12:1, in which Paul says, “…let us through off everything that hinders…” I told her for many Christians the blanket on our bed is what hinders them from getting out of bed to meet with God. Throw it off!!! She thanked me for that word and said she thinks she knows the place where she can go in the morning to have her quiet time. I still smile thinking about our conversation!

Ministry Update November 4

2008-11-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

November 4, 2008

As I sit here in front of my computer staring at the screen, I have been talking to God asking Him where I should begin. So much has happened this past month and it seems almost impossible to put it all down in writing. So I will begin by saying that October was probably one of the hardest months of ministry for me for various reasons. I had the amazing privilege of giving 5 full JoyShops and I spoke two additional times. Full JoyShop’s take their toll on me physically and emotionally and I am learning that two JoyShops a month is the ideal. So you can see I went a little overboard this month! But praise God close to 1000 people heard the message of JoyShop and we trust God for the fruit of our hard labors.

Along with the busy schedule is just meeting my family’s needs and enjoying having 4 young adults living in our home….and all the dynamics that go along with that! But praise God every morning as I am waiting for the coffee to brew, I step outside and slowly watch the sunrise and rejoice in the fact that God is the giver of life and creation and He daily blesses me with His presence and strength so that I can face the daily challenges of life.

I just got back from voting for our next President. Every time this significant election comes around anxiety and fear creep up. On top of the fears of our country’s future we have our own personal fears and anxieties of the unknowns in our life. This morning in my quiet time God gave me three words for today and I would like to share them with you.

GRACE: II Corinthians 12:9

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

I don’t know about you but there are seasons in my life where I feel so weak, even to the point of wondering how I can possibly be worthy of serving our Savior, and yet God’s Word assures me His grace in my life is stronger than my weaknesses. His grace is more than enough to carry me through anything no matter how difficult or hopeless a situation might appear!

WAIT: Psalm 27:14, Lamentations 3:25-26, Isaiah 40:31

“Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart. Wait on the Lord.”

“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”

Today, are you facing a difficult decision or circumstance that you lack the wisdom in knowing what you should do or how you should respond? Then wait for God to lead your steps and continue seeking Him with your whole heart! Be of good courage! He is strengthening your heart as you wait patiently.

JOY: Philippians 4:4, Psalm 16:11, Psalm 51:12

“Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!”

“In thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures evermore.”

“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit.”

The word joy is mentioned 178 times in the Bible. Joy is a natural by product of spending time in God’s presence. If I want to truly experience God’s joy to the full then I must abide in His presence daily and respond lovingly to those around me each day. (John 15:1-11) The difficult and challenging circumstances we find our self in are never joyful. At least not for me! In fact often the enemy tries to drain the joy right out of us by our focus on our circumstances instead of focusing on our God and who He is. GOD IS FAITHFUL no matter what and He is worthy of our worship and praise, even in the difficult times.

So today as we wait for the outcome of the Presidential election and face our own personal challenges, vote for GOD and what His Word promises you. Vote to believe that His grace is sufficient to carry you through this day, vote to wait on Him and His sovereignty over our country and our lives, and vote to walk in His joy today and every day.

November is less busy at least from the speaking standpoint. But here are three events that you can be in prayer for:

IGNITE: Friday, November 7
I praise God for giving me one of the desires of my heart, the opportunity to speak at Ignite, a gathering for young adults in the Brethren In Christ denomination who have a heart and passion for missions. I will be given the chance to encourage and equip these young people in their journey of seeking God.

Susquehanna Valley Pregnancy Center: November 12
This was an unexpected opportunity that just came up. Since the JoyShop we had scheduled on November 15 with another church was canceled I was able to take on this request. I will be sharing my testimony with about 15 teen girls at Grace Baptist Church for 2 hours. My focus will be sexual purity but more importantly equipping them to read the Word. Not everyone in attendance will be Christians. Please pray that I will be able to present the gospel message clearly and that some may come to Jesus as their personal Savior. Pray that the girls will be more motivated to strive to be sexually pure after hearing my story. And lastly, pray that I may be empowered from above to instruct them on how to hear God speaking to them and that they will have a desire to take the 21 Day Challenge and experience a revival in their own hearts.

Mt Olivet BIC Church: November 23
I will be sharing in their Sunday morning hour. Pray that the message I share will spur them on to seek God and to prioritize their relationship with Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your prayers and all the many ways you support the ministry. I am so blessed to have a board of directors and volunteers that care about the mission and vision that God has given me. Many give generously of their time and I pray as you read through some of the following testimonials your will reap the joy of seeing that the time we give is not in vain.

Book ministry:
"I'm reading your story AGAIN and it makes me cry every time! I am so in awe of how God worked things out, your complete trust in Him, and your JOY…just wanted you to know that your story has blessed me today."

From a JoyShop attendee a year ago at the Table:
"Anita- I heard you speak at Table Church a little while ago. Your message changed my life. We spoke privately after the last evening and you gave me a special gift...I'm sure you don't remember, you meet so many people. God Bless You and Your Ministry!!"

More recent at Victory Church JoyShop:
The reason why I am writing you is to thank you for encouraging me to get into the scriptures. I have been enjoying it sooooooooo much. I love reading and asking the Lord for insight, and you know what? He gives insight! Praise God! I love journaling and just letting God speak to me as I write. You encouraged me to open up the very best treasure
I can ever or will ever have. Thank you for being so obedient to our Lord.

Finally, I can't wait until I see you at HBIC for another Joy Workshop. I told most anybody who will let me blab all about you and how God is using you. We at HBIC are in for a huge blessing. We will be praying about your visit.

Time at Brethren In Christ headquarters:
“I was at Grantham BIC JoyShop. God is doing wonderful things as the BICWM team took the challenge together and we share each Tues at our staff devotions … it sure is getting us into the Word First.”
From a young man at the BIC headquarters who chose to take the 21 DC:
“Each morning has been absolutely ALIVE! I’ve been reminded of the sheer JOY of knowing God! He has shown me clearly in just one week how starting the day intentionally putting him first sustains me through the day and shapes my daily perspective and has prepared me for times of ministry that I know were fueled by His Word and His Presence overflowing…it has directly affected my attitude/approach in marriage, work, etc.”

A young girl from the YES Discipleship program in Harrisburg who is adopted:
“Thank you for reassuring me that my birthmother truly does love me and thinks about me. I always held this sadness inside and this question of if she truly did love me...but now, I know, thanks to you. And every birthday I celebrate from this point on I will pray that God will fill her soul with peace...and that even though I may not ever see her face - she will know without a shadow of a doubt that I am okay. Thank you for your testimony...and for allowing me the opportunity to hear the words I have been longing to hear for so many years.

You have blessed me more than you can ever imagine...”

People who have been taking the 21 DC online at The Pocket Testament League:
“Very meaningful program. Renewed my faith and commitment to share His word with others. I must be more bold in giving out the Gospel of John.
Thank you in His name.”

“I loved the format... thought it was informative, & helpful, but concise...made it easy to recommend to friends as it wouldn't take up a large chunk of time to get them interested in participating. Wish you had more of these studies to keep people in the WORD daily. Going to the computer daily made it easier and special --- you felt connected with someone else and their thoughts rather than just doing it by yourself. Thank you for this opportunity. It was great!”

LMS student:
"You were awesome today in chapel
I over herd lots of my friends talking about how much they like your stories and your speaking"

May His Name and His Word continue to be exalted everywhere we go! Anita

Ministry Update Oct. 6 2008

2008-10-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I am just blown away by God’s unexpected surprises and blessings. As you know I recently returned from a two week family vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Literally I was home for 11 hours and then left again for Sandy Cove to be a part of a women’s retreat weekend. As I was getting ready to leave for Sandy Cove a rather large package came in the mail from my birth daughter, Twila. Can you feel my joy just in that statement? To receive a gift from your birth daughter for you birthday when you did not know where she was for 21 years is truly an incredible gift from our Lord!!! When I opened the package I was breathless as my eyes laid hold of the most beautiful hand made quilt I had ever seen! Her aunt and several relatives, including her mother, wanted to make the quilt as a token of love and appreciation for the choice I had made so many years ago. Also enclosed were some pictures of the women working on the quilt and they had all signed a special card. Tears still come to my eyes as I look at the pictures. It made turning 52 not so painfulJ!!! What an unexpected blessing to be able to take the pictures to Sandy Cove and share them with others. As one of my dear friends said, “The story continues!” (I have attached a picture of the quilt on my bed).

Ministry Update:
Sandy Cove went great. I praise God for His goodness to us as we served the women who attended the retreat. Kay Risser, Kim Wilson, Shelly Kibler and Kristen Funk joined me for most of the weekend and were a huge help to me. They set up our ministry table and manned it when I couldn’t as well as pack up the materials left over at the end of the retreat. I am truly blessed to have so many volunteers willing to give of their time.

Received this comment from Candy Davidson of Sandy Cove, “Thank you so much for coming to Sandy Cove to bless the women with your workshop … I want you to know that there were a number of women who mentioned on their evaluation cards how much you had blessed them …I am so looking forward to March when I can experience your whole JoyShop.” We had roughly 70-80 women who attended the workshop which was really good considering it was optional. Thank you for your prayers! We know that many lives were impacted this past weekend and many contacts were made that will help spread our message. The smaller above picture was taken with Candy, the main speaker, musicians, and myself.

I returned home Sunday night and was eager for Monday to come so that I could make an attempt to catch up from being away. With a busy week ahead I knew I had a lot to do. Before I had left for vacation I was asked if I would be willing to share for 25 minutes at my home church, Manor Church, with the fifth and sixth graders on how to know God. To be honest, there was a side of me that felt like saying no because my schedule was full enough. But I do have a soft spot for youth and certainly I wanted to give back to my own church. So I said yes.

As I went for a walk that afternoon before I was to share, I prayed and asked God how to best get the message across to this age group. Some ideas came and when I got home I quickly wrote them down. When I arrived at church I was greeted by one of the assistants of that class who promptly told me she was reading my book with her 5th grade daughter. What a blessing to know that she was finding the book helpful. As the 20+ students came in and sat in a circle, Sherilyn Schock gave a great introduction to the session and then we handed out our new teen journals with the highlighter and pocket testament. (BTW: my thanks to Jack Pieklo, Nicola Pearce and Deb Risser for the hard work they put in to our new design) The students were really excited to have them and I was excited to hand them out!

The next 20 minutes were just precious. It’s hard to explain except to say that they were so attentive and I could tell that many of them were grasping the message. At the end when I asked if they had any questions one dear little girl raised her hand and asked me, “Why did you give up your daughter for adoption?” I prayed quickly that God would help me to answer that question in a way that would satisfy her and at the same time make a spiritual analogy. I trust God that He answered my prayer. I then dismissed them for a practice time with their leaders so that they would leave knowing how to do the 21 DC and learn something new about Jesus. As I drove home tears filled my eyes, grateful that I had not said “no” to this invitation. When I think of what a privilege it is to be able to teach these children how to know God in a practical way, I can’t help but thank Him over and over for the JOY of it all. Daily I am aware of His grace in my life and I continue to rejoice that He allows us these many opportunities to impact lives for eternity!

On Thursday I wrapped up my time at Mt. Calvary Christian School. It was the closing session of JoyShop. I had previously given them the 21 DC to do. Again, I was reminded of the amazing privilege to impact these students to grow in their intimacy with Jesus. What was so cool was that I forgot to mention the fact that there were response forms in the back of their binder for them to fill out if they had time. But five students came up to me afterward and handed me their response forms. Some of the comments received:

“This JoyShop was amazing and I loved every part of it…I will never do my quiet time the same. I’ve grown so much closer to Christ in just the past month. Thank you so much for coming.”

“This workshop was awesome. Thank you for coming … to challenge, motivate, and encourage us. It is my desire to meet with God every morning. Pray that I may be obedient.”

Another dear student wrote: “I don’t do Bible Studies. I want to and I will try to get up early to spend time with God.”

One student told me that she wanted to fill out the response form but was afraid she’d miss something important in the session and that she would fill it out later and mail to me.

As I reflected over my time at Mount Calvary I couldn’t help but thank God for this ministry. I love it! To inspire people to seek God first on a daily basis and give them the tools to help them be successful is truly exciting!

Recently we received the following email in response to my book I had left purposefully on the bookshelf for a retreat house where I had done a youth retreat this past summer. “My husband's family spent the weekend at Charter Hall, a house on the Chesapeake Bay. Your book, THE FILE, was there at the house. Several of us picked it up and read the book. It was awesome! I just wanted to thank you for sharing your heart in an honest and powerful way. Isn't God awesome? He truly desires the BEST in life for each of his children and your story is evidence of this. The one thing that really impacted me was the response your parents had to your pregnancy. They could have been angry, withdrawn, and hurtful, but responded in love! WOW..... that's amazing. What a challenge for me as a parent of 4 to respond likewise!!”

Other book news: I made a stop at Barnes and Nobles to find out if there is any way I can get my book on their bookshelves. To my pleasant surprise the Community Relations Manager told me that my book is actually in their system and that you can order it online. He then told me that they actually had my book for a season but only sold one copy so they sent their other copies back to the publisher. He also told me that for a first time author it is really a miracle that they even have my book! He said I was very fortunate. I gave God the credit! I happened to be shopping with my son, Josh, that day, and so I told him that I would pay him to sit at Barnes and Nobles in the coffee shop reading my book in hopes that it would inspire someone to buy it! He was gamed!!!! Anyway, at least now you know you can send people to Berean Bookstore or Barnes and Nobles to purchase the book.

Ministry Prayer Request:

Thursday through Friday, Oct. 9 & 10, I will be doing JoyShop in a retreat setting with the junior and senior high students of DaySpring Christian Academy. I am so excited to have this opportunity. Please pray that these students will be receptive and take to heart what they hear.

Tuesday, Oct. 14, I will be sharing the message of JoyShop with the leadership of the Brethren In Christ denomination which happens to be my church affiliation. I know in my heart that this is a divine appointment. I don’t know what the Lord is up to but I am extremely excited about this opportunity. Pray that JoyShop Ministries will find favor and that the Holy Spirit would reveal to us what role this ministry could have in impacting the denomination at large.

Well, this is enough for now. October is a busy month and there are other ministry events happening. In fact I have six full JoyShop’s this month. I usually do not book this many but it is just how it all fell. Pray that I will have the energy, passion, and discernment to serve effectively at every event. Thank you for being my support through prayer, volunteered time, and finances. I could not serve the body of Christ as effectively without your support and I am gratefully indebted to you.

In Him, Anita

2008-09-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

Ministry Update September 10, 2008

Message from Anita

Mark 3:13-15
“And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out …”

This morning in my time alone with God, I decided to start our time together reading the assigned reading for September 10 from Charles Spurgeon’s “Morning and Evening Devotional.” I was just hoping for words that would encourage and prepare me for the strategic planning day I was having with JoyShop Ministries board of directors. What a timely reading the Lord had in store for me from a man who lived in the 1800’s. Rather than explain it, I am just going to quote from the devotional.

“The call of Christ’s servants comes from above. Jesus stands on the mountain, forever above the world in holiness, earnestness, love, and power. Those He calls must go up the mountain. They must seek to rise to His level by living in constant reunion with Him. They may not be able to ascend to classic honors, or attain scholastic eminence; but like Moses, they must have familiar fellowship with the unseen God. If not, they will never be fully qualified to proclaim the gospel of peace.

Jesus went alone to have high fellowship with the Father. If we are to be a blessing, we must do the same. Little wonder the apostles were clothed with power when they came down from the mountain where Jesus was. This morning, we must endeavor to climb the mount of communion, for there we may be ordained to the life work for which we are set apart.

Let us not look on a human face today until we have first seen Jesus. Time spent with Him is repaid with blessed interest. We too will cast out devils and work wonders if we go to the world with the divine energy that Christ alone can give. It is useless to fight the Lord’s battle until we are armed with heavenly weapons. We must see Jesus. This is essential.”

Two hundred years later the message remains the same through JoyShop Ministries! As I think back on my “old” Christian days of spending time with God when it was convenient or when I felt I had the time, to where I am today after making the life changing decision to put our relationship first every morning….well, there is just no comparison! Every morning as I crawl out bed and walk “up the mountain” to meet with my Father, I know that He will meet me there and clothe me with His mercy, love, and forgiveness. As our hearts mingle and He speaks words of truth and power, I rest in the knowledge that He is in control of my life and JoyShop Ministries. And I come down the mountain equipped to face the challenges of my day.

Dear friends of JoyShop Ministries, I cannot stress this enough. If you truly desire to serve Jesus with your life, then climbing up the mountain daily to be alone with the Father is a must. May God grant us the desire to look upon His face before we see any other face!

Joy Alerts:

Thank you for your prayers. Wow! What a great week of ministry. It all began last Friday night at Victory Church which meets at Greenfield Industrial Park. It was a woman’s event and there were 40-45 women of all ages in attendance. Paula Frey served with me over the weekend and we sensed God’s presence in a powerful way! What a joy to see the Holy Spirit stirring hearts.

One young lady spoke with me afterwards with tears in her eyes, as she shared the revelation God had given her while I was sharing my story. She does not know her birth father and she had been spending time looking for him without much success. God gently reminded her that she should be spending the same amount of time seeking Him as she is putting in to seeking her earthly father! How I praise God for revealing this marvelous truth to her.

Received these message through facebook:
“Hi Anita! I wanted to proclaim to you the faithfulness of our God! Many, many things were settled in my own heart thru the teaching at your seminar at Victory! Thank you for your obedience for sharing this Gift with others. I understand that many years ago, God spoke "JoyShop" in your heart and life and I want to testify of the fruits of your obedience! Be filled with joy today, my friend. Thank you!”
“I can't thank you enough for doing what you do. To be so willing to follow God in faith, even when you don't always know what the outcome will be. I admire you for trusting God, especially during the tough times! I shared a bit with you about my past life … and where I'm at now. I'm so glad I've found my way back to God. I feel like I am being restored. I was so moved, while doing the exercise of reading John 15 at the workshop on Saturday. The theme of LOVE just kept popping out and screaming to me. I have so much hurt when it comes to feeling loved. I feel like there are clouds over my eyes, I can't see how anyone could love me. I know that those thoughts and feelings are all lies...Satan is feeding into my message of the wound, that I am not good enough. I know deep down that I AM good enough though. I am LOVED by God! I want you to know that I have accepted your 21-Day Challenge. I am soooo confident that God is going to rock my world through this. Already today, Satan is trying soooo hard to bring me down! It's not gonna work though! I'm praying that God will continue to bless your ministry.”
I praise God for every life He allows me to encourage. Do you see and feel the power of God’s Word already taking place in these women’s hearts? If we can just encourage everyone to seek God through spending time alone with Him in His Word, then He does the rest!!!

The beginning of the week I had two morning chapel sessions with 9th-12th graders at Mount Calvary School in Elizabethtown. We had the opportunity to serve over 90 students and faculty. Cindy Rutt, Shelly Kibler, and Kay Risser assisted me on those mornings. I had an hour and a half each morning and the students were very attentive. After each chapel service I had students come up to thank me and say how it had impacted their life! An adult who sat in one of my sessions responded through facebook:
"I joined a men's group (24 weeks) @ LCBC this morning @ 6:00 AM. I was so encouraged and inspired by your love and commitment to God that it clinched the decision to join this series (which actually began today)... I knew that I needed a kick in the butt … God clearly was telling me this was needed @ this time of my busy life. Thanks!!"

Another adult who sat in on the sessions said:
“It was Wonderful having you come to our school and speak these 2 days. I was truly inspired by your testimony and challenge. Please pray that I will give God authority in my life so that He can accomplish what He desires for me.”
One of the things that I personally love about this ministry is that it impacts the young and the old!

Strategic Planning Day: The board of directors had a great day with our facilitator today at The Hurst House Bed & Breakfast. The Hurst’s were kind enough to donate the meeting space to the ministry free of charge and Curvin and Cathy Hurst of Oregon Dairy, provided a wonderful lunch. We felt so blessed to have these provisions taken care of for us! The board worked hard at defining our strengths and weaknesses as a ministry. Together we came up with some goals for 2009 and ways we can successfully implement themJ! One of many things I have learned since the founding of JoyShop Ministries is that ministries evolve! They do not happen over night. Drats! Actually, I have learned to appreciate the process, knowing that God is always on time and we make less mistakes when we proceed cautiously.

This sums it up for now. I leave on Saturday with my family for Myrtle Beach, S.C. which has become a yearly tradition for us, 25 years to be exact! I know it seems like I just got back from vacation, but this trip I get to stay in one place and be with all our grown childrenJ! Yeah!

Thank you for your continual prayers for the ministry. Always remember, prayer is the greater work.

May His Name be exalted now and forever more!

Anita

2008-09-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

Message from Anita September 4, 2008

I Samuel 12:20-24
“Then Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart…For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people…Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.”

Recently I started to begin my quiet time with the Lord each morning with this prayer, “Dear God, please grant me a deeper realization of my sinfulness and a deeper appreciation for the surpassing worthiness of your Son so that I might serve and glorify you with ever increasing zeal and faithfulness.” Now this is a type of prayer that is a little scary to pray. Yet somehow this was a real desire of my heart. When one is busy in ministry for the Lord and you are constantly reaping the joy of seeing lives impacted for the kingdom, you can tend to forget the real wickedness of your own heart. What I wasn’t expecting was for Satan to jump on this request. One morning during my time in the Word, an assault began on my mind. At first I thought it was the Holy Spirit bringing conviction over sins of my past to remind me of how wicked my heart can be. Yet the strange thing is that I have always felt the Lord’s forgiveness and cleansing in my heart. For four days I searched scripture and cried out to God during this assault. God pointed me to Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, Wait, I say, on the Lord!” Through out my days as this burden weighed on my heart, I kept praying what is called the Jesus prayer, “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner,” and I waited on Him.

Finally on Tuesday morning, I woke up at 5:00 which isn’t too normal, and I just knew that God had some business to do with me so I went to my “spot” and just started devouring His Word and praying. I stayed at that spot for 4 hours! In that time, God pointed me to the passage above in I Samuel as well to another book that I felt God wanted me to read. I came to the realization that God had allowed Satan to torment me, but He used it to answer my prayer request of a new realization of my sinfulness and a deeper appreciation of what Christ has done for me. Yes, I am a sinner. I have had shameful attitudes and actions, yet God in His infinite mercy, keeps me from turning aside and has given me a passion to serve Him will all my heart. I don’t have to fear! To think that it pleases the Lord to make us His people is truly too marvelous to fully comprehend. Praise God! It just makes me want to shout for joy over all the great things He has done for us. I continue to pray that God will use times like these to keep me on the path of humility and brokenness in serving the body of Christ.

Ministry update
Our time in Franklin, Pa. was a lot of fun. The Todd Agnew Concert was great! He is a simple communicator with a gift of expressing his soul through song and guitar. Previously I had sent one of my books to his parents who live in Franklin, in hopes that they would pass it on to Todd as a way of introducing myself. To my surprise during the concert, Todd mentioned that he was adopted! After the concert, I had the blessing of meeting Todd, his parents and his adopted sister. They ended up sitting in on my session on Saturday morning. We enjoyed conversation afterwards centered around adoptions
More important though were the young people that I had the opportunity to serve! I only had one hour with them, but I pray that the workshop made an impact on their spiritual lives. . If you go to my blog and look at my last entry you will see a picture of Todd, his family from the area, and myself.

Sunday morning I spoke for one hour during a combined Sunday school hour with about 140+ people as well as Sunday evening for the youth/a few adults. This congregation was so receptive to the message and many shared with me afterwards that it had been just what they needed! One high school age male student handed me a note written on the church bulletin that said, “I’ve been praying for a message about what you gave us today. Thank you so much for speaking today.” That was worth it all right thereJ! Another great comment came this week in the mail from a woman in that congregation, “I want you to know that your message sunk in—my husband read his Bible before the paper on Monday morning!! A miracle, since he is an avid paper reader first thing each a.m.!”

An email we recently received:
“You spoke at Camp Hebron in June of last year and gave us the 21 day challenge and I took it! I was really amazed how journaling added to my devotions and Bible reading. I never thought that journaling would stick for me - I've tried over the years and my entries were few and far between! I now have over a full year of journaling the amazing things that God has been showing me, mostly through His word and I actually write in a nice journal instead of a little throw away spiral note book. :o) There really is an amazing connection that happens when you write down the thoughts the Lord gives you - not just leaving them swimming around in your head. So I just wanted to send you a note of encouragement and to testify to the Lord's faithfulness! Keep cheering for Jesus - it has impacted my life.”

As these words of encouragement come in I like to pass them along to you because with out your support I could not serve the body of Christ as effectively. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for partnering with me!

Ministry Prayer Requests:
--Sept 8-9, (Monday and Tuesday) Mt. Calvary Christian School
--Sept 10, (Wednesday) Strategic Planning Day for the Board
--Sept 27, (Saturday) Two one hour sessions at Sandy Cove

Pray for receptive hearts, an anointing of God’s presence and lives impacted for eternity.

A fellow God Seeker,
Anita

Ministry Update August 22, 2008

2008-08-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

Ministry Update August 22, 2008

Acts 17:10-11
“…for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed…”

Thank you to all who covered my husband and me in prayer during our recent motorcycle trip out west. We had a wonderful time of relaxation and truly enjoyed God’s beautiful creation as we visited numerous National Parks in the United States and Canada. I flew home on Wednesday and Paul is continuing the trip home by cycle. I basically have had one day to catch up from being away for 3 weeks before heading out today for Franklin, Pa, for a speaking engagement.

The weekend retreat that I will be participating in is sponsored by Todd Agnew, a contemporary Christian musician. His songs are heard all across the nation. He will be giving a concert tonight and teaching tomorrow (Saturday) morning from 9-11. I will have a one hour session from 11:00 to 12:00, and another hour session from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. The topic of my workshop that was assigned to me is, “Am I loveable?” Todd will wrap up the afternoon in word and song. Then Sunday I will be speaking at a church in the area during the Sunday school hour as well as in the evening with the youth group. I am thrilled at both of these opportunities and look forward to what God will do in the lives of these teens. I will return home on Monday.

My daughter, Shelly, is making the five hour drive with me and I am really looking forward to having time alone with her over the next four days! Even though she lives next door to us, it is hard to find quality time to be together so we feel this is a bonus to be able to spend time together as we serve the Lord.

This weekend will be busy so please pray in the following ways based on the above verses from Acts 17:
--Pray that the teens will receive the message that I and the other speakers bring with great eagerness.
--Pray that they will be motivated to examine and search the Scriptures daily to learn truth for themselves.
--Pray that many of these precious teens will believe the Word and grow in their knowledge of Jesus and settle the question once and for all, “Am I loveable?”

Ministry Update August 8

2008-08-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

Ministry Update August 6, 2008

Message from Anita

Psalm 138:1-2
“I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; before the gods I will sing your praise. I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.”

As I was meditating on these verses the other morning, I happened to be on a balcony that has an incredible view of the glorious Rocky Mountains. I thought about how majestic and exalted these mountains are. The word, “exalted” means to be elevated in rank! As I stared at the beauty of these mountains, God reminded me that His name and His Word is more exalted than what my eyes were beholding at that moment! Now to be honest, every time I come to Estes Park, it is hard for me to take my eyes off of the Rockies. I just want to sit and stare at them because I know that soon I will be back home and I never know if I will ever see them again. God gently reminded me that this is how I should view His Name and His Word! My eyes should be glued to the beauty and wonder of these two things. Oh God, capture my heart with the beauty of who you are and the majestic wonder of Your written Word.

Ministry Highlights
I recently had the opportunity to speak at Vision, a gathering of teens and young adults whose heart’s desire is to worship and be taught the Word of God. Arriving a little early, I noticed a young man was there that I was pretty sure did not have a relationship with Jesus. In my mind I knew that this evening was going to be a divine appointment for this young man, at least that was what I was praying for. I talked with him briefly and then went to pray with the worship leader in preparation for the evening. I had decided in advance to speak on John 21 so I handed out Pocket Testaments for them to follow along. I did something that I have never done before….at least on purpose…and that was to just speak from my heart and have no notes to follow, not even an outline. Even though it was scary…I actually enjoyed it! I had to fully rely on the Holy Spirit and trust Him to speak a message that was needed that night. At the end I had them get into small groups to pray for one another. The following day I had the opportunity to talk to a close friend of the young man that had attended who had invited him to the event. He told me that after everyone went home he had the chance to lead his friend to the Lord! He prayed to receive Jesus! Praise God for this young man’s desire to lead his friend to Christ. He had been praying for months for this opportunity.

Rawlinsville Campmeeting:
A man who had strayed from God but had in the past two years come back to a relationship with God, shared with me his desire to grow spiritually and he wanted to learn how to journal! He asked if I could help explain how to journal and wondered what one journal’s about! So I briefly shared with him but told him I would be going into more detail the next day. He came back the following day and what a JOY to encourage him in his journey of growing closer to God.
A young woman came up to me on the last day, and shared how she had been at a JoyShop a year ago. She told me it has changed her life.

Comments recently received through the mail:
--“I am very glad I went to your JoyShop. I shall never forget your story and how you introduced the Bible to us anew. Thankyou!

--“We all needed to hear this so desperately! During the past week—spending each morning with the Lord I realized how I’ve missed so much—but I’m seeing his desire for me! Praise the Lord! I am so excited…!”

-- “Your testimony has changed my relationship with God. I've always craved a devotion time with Him, but relied on study guides to show me through the Bible. I just didn't
know where to start and didn't understand most of what I was reading because
I was reading too much in one sitting. Since hearing your description of the Bible being a letter to ME, I've been up EVERY morning an hour before my 4 kids and loving His word. Taking notes, understanding it, and praying over what He wants from me and for me. The Lord wakes me up faithfully every morning before 6. I treasure this time.”

--“You spoke at my church this past winter and just totally confirmed in my heart what
I know God had been asking me to do. By his Grace I have been more committed
with my morning quiet times than ever before! And I have seen so much fruit.
Obedience is a powerful thing! It’s like when we say yes to Him, it just
gives Him that much more opportunity to bless our cute little socks off! :-)
So thank you for giving me a huge boost in my devotional life and for helping me live more fully for Christ!”

How I praise God for the blessing of seeing fruit from the ministry. Many people serve the Lord without seeing the fruit of their labors so we are extremely bless to see immediate fruit!

Ministry Prayer Requests
--Right now I am speaking at the Women’s Week at Ravencrest Bible School in Estes Park, Co. Please pray for entire families to be impacted through the women that are attending this week. So many things have happened but I will share two highlights. I met a gifted artist on the hiking trail behind the facility here. I knew instantly that this was going to be one of those divine appointments. We had an amazing time of sharing our spiritual passions as we got acquainted. He told me that on his drive out here he asked God how does one really get to know Him. I ended up sharing a mini JoyShop! He so enjoyed the story that he told me he was going to go home and share the story with his five children! I happened to have some of the youth journals on hand that we hand out to youth and sent seven home with him, one for everyone, so they could do the 21 DC!

Later on in the day, a young woman who is serving as an intern here, told me she had heard my story when I spoke at the school in January. She ended up sharing with me how her life had been impacted by it. Her face was so full of joy as she spoke.

Every day, I am seeing fruit from the ministry. These precious women from all over the country have been so impacted that they are trying to figure out ways to get word out about this ministry! I feel like the Lord has given me another support team in the West!

As I wrap up this week and leave Saturday for a 12 day motorcycle trip out West, I would like to ask your prayers for safety in our travels. Numerous women here have expressed concern for me in that they know that Satan can not possibly like the ministry I am doing and they cautioned me to stand guard and be aware. They also have asked me if I have intercessors on behalf of the ministry and myself because they feel the ministry should be covered in prayer 24/7! I assured them that I do, but I guess you can never have too many intercessors. So I would covet your prayers as we travel these next couple of weeks.

May God richly bless your life for partnering with JoyShop Ministries through your prayers, financial gifts, and words encouragement!

Seeking Him Together

Anita

2008-07-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

Message from Anita July 14, 2008

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from the Pocket Testament League asking me if I would be willing to write 21 brief daily devotionals to go along with the 21 Day Challenge. At the end of this month they will be changing their home page and encouraging their members to take the 21DC and members will have the daily devotional as an additional source of encouragement if they choose. My initial thoughts were, “I don’t have time to write these daily devotionals nor do I consider my self a gifted writer.” Yet in my heart I knew that I was to say yes to this project and completely rely on God for the resources to do it. I just completed day 11 so I am half way done! Here is a sample of one devotional that actually came to my mind as a result of the Pocket Testament asking me to do something that seemed out of my league:

His Word:
John 6:9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

My Thoughts:
I can picture it now, the guys all standing around Jesus, watching a large crowd of people coming towards them. Jesus, with a smile on his face, suggests that they feed the crowd. I would have loved to see the look on the disciples’ faces! “Yeah, right,” says Philip, “Eight months’wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
Andrew makes a feeble observation and points out the young lad who has packed a small lunch. Jesus, still smiling, takes Andrew up on the offer, and takes the few pieces of bread and fish and proceeds to give thanks, distributing the food to the masses. Another miraculous sign!
Have you ever felt like that little boy must have felt? “I only have a little to give. How can Jesus possibly use what I have to help anyone?” Jesus doesn’t need a lot. He only smiles and says, “Bring me what you’ve got!” In giving the little that you have, he can bless it and distribute spiritual food to those around you.
My Prayer:
Dear God, I have to admit, that often I look at myself and wonder how you could ever use my life to bless someone else. The few gifts you have given me seem so insignificant. But today, you have given me hope. I am bringing you the few loaves of bread and two pieces of fish that I do have. I lay my simple gifts before you and ask you to bless them and to multiply them in a miraculous way. I’m praying for leftovers! “Let nothing be wasted.” In Jesus Name, Amen.

Ministry Highlights:
Wow! June and July have been busy months in light of the fact that I did not book my schedule as full as the school calendar year. A brief summary of where JoyShop Ministries has been:
Manor Church every Sunday in June
Byerland Mennonite Church youth/adults
Extreme Worship in Atglen, Pa.
Middle Creek Church of the Brethren youth/young adult retreat

I praise God for these opportunities to impact lives. A few comments I received:

“Where can I get 200 of your pocket testaments? I send out ebay orders and would love to include them in my packages.”

From a youth who liked having her devotions at night and questioned me on the early morning issue- “well wouldn’t you know it...In Ecuador Keith made time EVERY morning for us to do devotions. And the scenery in Ecuador is just breath taking. For sure only from God Himself. I am still working my way through Ezekiel. Not quite done yet…But yeah, devotions in the morning are a good thing. And I realized that I had time in my day before but I just wasn't making any. Now that I am I hope it brings more brightness to my day.”

From a youth that attended Extreme Worship; “I loved listening to your testimony! Thank you!"

From a young man who recently attended a JoyShop: “You helped me to realize that I need God in everything I do and it is amazing to be able to hear God and it’s definitely changing my life!”
From high school students: “Thank you so much for coming and spending time with us. Because of these sessions, I realized how much I was missing from my walk with Christ and I think it will be a lot better.”

Thanks for coming…some of your points hit close to home.”

“Your story touched my heart in so many ways. It has showed me that when you’re faced with an obstacle no matter how big or small trust God with all your heart and he will help you through anything and everything…I have been struggling…and instead of moving closer to God I got further from him and I don’t want that because I need him…God is using you to teach people like us all about him, and it is really changing lives because I know it has mine!”

I also received this response from a high school student who receives JoyShop Ministries Newsletter:
“Anita, I thank you so much for the impact you've had in my life…God has used you in my life as an example of how he wants me to grow as a believer in Christ. He used you in my life as the push I need towards seeking him each and every day and spending time
with Him. Although I have failed quite a few times, for I know I am a sinner
in desperate need of my Savior, I know that God will always bring me back to
the place where I am meant to be, which is seated before him each morning
praying to Him and reading his Holy Word… I hope that you will pray for me that
I will desire God and draw closer to Him each and every day and that when I
meet with Him, my heart and soul would be there, not just my mind seeking a
higher knowledge. Thank you so much for all that you do in spreading the
gospel to others.”

After being away all weekend, I came home to this dear message from a student at a local high school through face book:
“hey, I'm writing you because I need some advice. My family is like a family of lions. . . hungry lions. My brother almost all the time has an attitude and my sister always thinks she’s right and never really asks for things, just gets into it! My dad well, his back is always in pain and that makes him grumpy. I don't like to see him in pain. It hurts me to see him like that. I don't know what to do and I would like some help.”

I thank God for the amazing privilege to be able to connect with students and to be able to offer them a word of encouragement whether it is face to face or through face book. I continue to feel the tug on my heart to reach more youth and young adults. I believe that as this ministry continues to grow and unfold God will open the right doors and push us in the direction he wants us to go.

I praise God for the opportunity he brought our way through a radio interview that was done over the phone last Friday. Jane Richey with the American Radio Family Station, WAWN @ 89.5 FM, interviewed me for the upcoming Todd Agnew concert/retreat that will be held the last weekend of August in Seneca, Pa. I will be given a one hour slot along with another speaker, Don Nixon, of Youth for Christ, to speak with hundreds of young people that attend Todd’s retreat. My workshop session is titled “Am I Loveable”. This is kind of scary to admit this but Jane told me that we will be able to hear the interview over the internet by the end of this week. If you go to http://www.wawn.org/ and click on the left for fishermensnet.org you will see a section called “Looking Through the Community Archives” and then click this week’s date.

Ministry prayer requests:

Upcoming events where I will be speaking:
Vision (July 26)
Rawlinsville Campmeeting Women’s Hour (July 29-30)
Ravencrest Bible School Women’s Retreat (Aug. 2-8)

Ministry Praise:

What I am about to share with you is probably the funniest thing that has happened to me in ministry:

As I was wrapping up the retreat time with Middle Creek’s Youth Group, I wanted to get a group picture that I could include on my blog. Everyone thought it would be great to get one on the dock that sits over the bay at the retreat center that had been rented for the weekend. So about 25 of us lined up randomly with me in the middle…all poised as the youth advisors were aiming their camera’s to take pictures. In a split second, we heard a crackling noise and the deck just collapsed with us standing on it! Some of us got wet, a few had minor cuts and scratches but we praise God that no one was seriously injured. Once we knew there were no major injuries we howled with laughter. We then took some pictures with us on the collapsed deck. Too bad no one had a video camera going. I am sure we would have won an award on America’s Funniest Home Video’s! Hopefully I can figure out how to get them on my blog at http://www.joyshop.org/!

Seeking Him Together

Anita

Joy Alert June 23, 2008

2008-06-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Message from Anita June 23, 2008

John 15:12
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

Last night, my spirit within felt an urge to grab my little pocket testament and go for a walk through the fields behind our house. I needed some time alone with God to process a book that I had just finished reading, “I Would Die For You: One student’s story of passion, service and faith.” The story of B.J. Higgins, a missionary who died right before his 16th birthday is very compelling and challenging. Everywhere B.J. went he shared the gospel including those he ministered to on a Peru Mission trip where he contracted a fatal respiratory disease. The reader is left with the challenge, “Who will take his place?” Who is willing to lay down their life for Christ? Who is willing to die daily to the flesh and its selfish ways, and be more concerned about lost souls then their own personal pleasures?

As I walked through the peaceful corn field I kept asking God, “Do I have it in me, to die completely to self?” You see, just nights earlier, I had failed miserably at dying to self. The Lord showed me this through a pitcher of ice tea! For those who don’t know this, I am a southern at heart when it comes to ice-tea. I will only drink fresh brewed ice tea. I had made a fresh pitcher Friday afternoon and was hoping it would last a little longer than the last batch I had just made. A group of young adults had converged on my house for the weekend and had devoured one pitcher rather quickly.

Friday night a 16 year old young man came to our house to swim. My son had told me he is gay and each time he has come to our home I have made time to get to know him. My son was away for the evening so I decided to stop working and take time to talk with him. As we sat on the deck talking, he asked me if I had anything to drink. (This is where the selfishness came out!) I did not want to share my ice tea with anyone at that moment. So I told him that I had water and milk to drink. He said water would be fine. So I poured a glass of cold water with ice for him. You know the saying, “your sins will find you out?” Well, it is so true! A few minutes later, another young man who happened to be playing volleyball on our volleyball court came into the house to help himself to a drink. He comes walking out on the deck where we are sitting with a tall glass of ice-tea!!! Of course my young friend could clearly see that the other guy had ice tea and proceeded to ask, “hey, where did you get that ice tea?” I won’t take the time to tell you how I wormed my way out of that one.

The gravity of my selfish heart did not hit me until Sunday morning, as I was teaching JoyShop at my church. I had given everyone the assignment to read John 15:1-17. As I was reflecting on that passage of scripture for the umpteenth time, the Holy Spirit convicted my heart. I heard this question from Him, “Anita, who committed the greater sin Friday night, your friend who does not really know me and is living a gay lifestyle, or you, who claims to be my follower but was unwilling to share your ice tea? How can you say that you are willing to die for me, when you can’t even give up a glass of ice tea in my name?” Tears flooded my eyes, as I heard this question repeated over and over. It was a sobering reminder that my heart is wretched and it was for this very reason that Christ had to come to this earth and die for my sins. I immediately confessed my sin and asked God for forgiveness, thanking him for pointing out the “beam” in my eye.

With God pointing out my selfishness and lack of love for others that morning, and reading about the selflessness of B.J. in the book I read that afternoon, I knew I had to get alone with God in that corn field and talk it over with Him. I found a place to sit, pulled out my pocket testament and began to read John 19:17-18.

“Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.”

It was the phrase, “Jesus in the middle,” that I could not shake. Yes, everyday Jesus is in the middle of so many decisions. We have two choices, just like the two criminals that were hanging on crosses beside Jesus. They each had a choice in how they were going to respond to the “King of the Jews”. The one blasphemed God and the other plead for mercy.

In the quietness of the evening, looking up to the sky, Jesus stood in the middle of my thoughts. I asked Him to have mercy on me and to renew my heart’s commitment to him. Acknowledging that I am incapable of truly showing the gratitude that He deserves for dying on the cross for my sins, I once again surrendered my heart to him and asked him to make me willing to die for Him.

As you go through the day, I invite you to take this phrase, “Jesus in the middle,” and apply it to the circumstances you encounter today. Put Him in the middle of every decision and may our hearts have the same plea for mercy as that of the one criminal, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Ministry Highlights

Praise God for the open door He gave JoyShop Ministries at Lancaster County Youth Intervention! I had the opportunity to minister to about 14 teen girls. I was permitted to give every girl a Pocket Testament (with the staples taken out), a journal and a highlighter. The Chaplin felt my time there was very profitable and gave me an open invitation to come again. Pray that God will send others to water the seed that was planted in these young women.

Praise God that the Pocket Testament League is able to print more of JoyShop Ministries pocket testaments, but it will take about two months before they are available again to their membership.

I continued to be blessed with the opportunity to serve my own church each Sunday in June. Recently I received this email from a man attending the JoyShop:

"Just wanted to drop you a note.. I have started the 21 day challenge.. WOW...Just looking back over these past years.. How I have missed Gods blessings...in my life of serving him...I love your study guide I will be using it for other chapters I read...It was last week every morning at my desk for devotional time... I asked God to show me with his presence of his beautiful birds, I asked for a different color bird each day and God did just that.. that is just WOW...

Thank you for opening my eyes to what I have been missing....

The ministry also received this email from a woman who had attended a JoyShop Retreat back in the spring. She wrote, “My life has been transformed because of the message you shared through the power of God’s Holy Spirit.”

From a Messiah College student through Facebook I received this message:
"hi anita! I asked you to be my friend on facebook a while ago around the time that you spoke at my school…I heard you speak both at chapel and at a workshop that evening. I wanted to let you know that I just bought your book, "The File" off of your joyshop website. I am anxious to read it this summer. Although I already heard your story at my school, I am excited to read your words. Thank you for everything that you do...God is definitely using you in more ways than you probably know. Good luck in everything you do!"

From a student at Lititz Christian:
"hello again. so i just finished reading your book! it was really good! haha i could hardly put it down :] thanks so much for giving it to me, i will pass it on to my friends and hopefully then we can donate it to the LCS library. thanks again!"

From a man I met in Dallas recently who is a business administrator of a large church in Californina:

“That night I opened your book and began reading the Introduction-and Icouldn't put it down. I read it clear through that night. Since I returned, my wife has read your book. Next it goes to a new believer in our 'not-so-small-group'…Next it goes to our Youth Pastor…she is anxious to get her turn. We have a thriving youth ministry of about 176 youth. With that many youth (over half new believers coming from outside families in the congregation) you can imagine, we deal with every kind of life situation. We will have some interesting conversations of how to best utilize this resource.Where it goes from there, only God knows.”

Only God knows is right!!!! I say this all the time to our operational team and board. We really do not yet know the full magnitude of where the Lord is going to take JoyShop Ministries but we are so excited and confident in the One who does know!

Ministry prayer requests

As I wrap up my last Sunday at Manor Church, pray that many will make a heart commitment to prioritize their relationship with Jesus. Unless the Church makes their relationship with God their first priority, they will never fulfill their true destiny as a Christ follower.

Sunday night I will be speaking to youth at the Byerland Mennonite Church. They have invited youth from other area churches. Please pray that many teenagers from the community will be looking for something to do that night and that the Holy Spirit will move in an unusual way to stir hearts into action.

While you are at it, you can pray that I have strength to speak three times in one dayJ!

Tuesday night, July 1, I will be speaking to a large group of young adults at an event called “Extreme Worship” in Atglen. Pray for an anointing of the Holy Spirit over my mouth and what comes out. Pray for changed lives. Pray for a revolution to begin in the heart of every person that attends.

Please continue to pray that the Lord will lead the team as we make decisions about the direction of the ministry and how to increase the awareness of JoyShop Ministries to colleges and high school settings.

In closing we continue to thank the Lord for His hand on this ministry and the way He provides financially as needs arise. Recently the board had approved a budgeted amount that we could spend on professionally taping JoyShop so that we could have video footage to use on our website as well as a promotional DVD. Amazingly we had already received a generous check from a supporter of the ministry earmarked for this project but we needed a lot more! God had been nudging me for months to approach a couple about partnering financially with us on this project without having to pull from our checking account. Two days after the board meeting, I had lunch with this godly couple and shared my heart with them. Within a couple of days they handed me an envelope with a personal note that they were pledging $5000.00 towards the project and we would have it by August 1. Tears came to my eyes as I realized their check plus the other one was enough to cover the budgeted amount for the project! Does not God’s goodness just blow you away!

As you each partner with JoyShop Ministries in your own unique way, know that you bring to this ministry what is needed to impact lives for eternity! I thank God for your support and for enabling us to fulfill the call that God has placed on each of us!

Learning to die daily,

Anita

JOY ALERT! June 7, 2008

2008-06-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

Joy Alert!! June 6, 2008

John 15:4-5
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me….If a man (any believer) remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

This past week the Lord blessed me with the opportunity to get away for a couple of days to have concentrated time of “remaining” in Him so that I can be more fruitful for him. Through the generosity of a couple who supports the ministry, I was given a quiet and peaceful place along the water to be still and listen to the Father’s heart.

As mentioned in previous ministry updates I have been slowly working through the gospel of John and it just so happened that today’s reading assignment was John 15:1-6. As many of you know, John 15 is the passage of scripture that I use in the JoyShop for participates to practice what they have learned in the workshop. So with much joy this morning, I picked up my little pocket testament, read the assigned verses, and then began to work my way through the detailed commentary’s remarks on this brief passage. The Holy Spirit taught me so much but I will try to summarize a key point or two.

The Lord tells his disciples to remain in Him repeatedly in John 15. The word, remain, in the Greek means “to abide, continue, to dwell.” In other words Jesus tells us to maintain our fellowship with God with vigilance! Why? Because, He is the vine, we are the branches, and the sole purpose of the vine is to produce fruit for our Father, the gardener. This morning the Holy Spirit reminded me in a forceful way that my time on earth is not about me and my desires but about the Lord Jesus, producing fruit through my life for the Father. John 15: 8 confirms this, when Jesus spoke to the disciples, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciple.”

It is my responsibility to abide in personal communion with God it is His responsibility to produce the fruit!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God the Father has granted us life, physically and spiritually. It is His desire that we produce much fruit while we have breath for His glory. There is no other purpose. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to waste my life chasing after the things of this world. I want a life that bears fruit for the Father! And this can only be accomplished through abiding in him. In the words of Arthur Pink, “To abide in Him, then, is to have sustained conscious communion with Him. To abide in Christ signifies the constant occupation of the heart with Him—a daily active faith in Him.”

Have you thought much of Him today? Are you occupied with an intense focus of dependency on Him as you go about your day? Friend, we can do nothing apart from Him. Nothing means NOTHING! Big or small, whatever we are doing today, we need to do in dependency on Him. And if we truly desire Jesus to own us so that he can produce fruit through us, then we have the responsibility to have constant communion with him on a daily basis. Then we can rest. We don’t have to produce fruit. God the Father does it for us through Jesus. May we bow our hearts before God right now, confessing our lack of being occupied with Him and our lack of bearing much fruit. May we each take personal responsibility to guard our time alone with Him. Our number one priority has to be daily time in the Word so that we may have fellowship with the Father and that He may produce the fruit he desires in our life. Apart from intimacy with the Father there will be no fruit. PERIOD!

Joy Alerts:

Praise God for the fruit that came from our time at a church in New Tripoli, Pa. This JoyShop was opened up to the community and close to 50 women were in attendance plus a few men! A few comments we received:

“Thank you so much for coming today. It really made me consider about seeking God first every day.”

“Thank you for speaking clearly and lovingly of God so that I could understand the path of putting God first in my life. The first step in my journey begins TODAY!”

“I needed this so much. I appreciate the love and acceptance that I received.”

From a teen: “Thank you for coming and telling your story and stuff.”

Frequently we get comments like the following:
“I wish I would have brought some friends with me. I hope there will be a next time.”

One of the hardest things for me to endure personally is the fact that I know that in the audience there are many people sitting there thinking the very same thing. This is why I continually ask you to pray as a team that everywhere Joyshop Ministries goes, that the Holy Spirit will draw those He wants there and that some day He will cause thousands to flock to a JoyShop so that there can be an awakening of the spiritually dead, and new fruit producing lives for the glory of God.

Praise God for the opportunity God has given me to take JoyShop to my own congregation during the month of June. I am teaching it during both Sunday school hours. The first Sunday there were over 200+ in attendance ages 14-80! One man came up to me afterwards who had never attended a JoyShop before. He told me that he had tickets for Hershey Park the next Sunday, but he didn’t want to miss the next session so he planned to give up some of his time at this amusement park to learn more about how to seek God. PRAISE THE LORD!

I also received an email from a man in our congregation telling me how awesome the first session had been and how he was looking forward to the next four Sundays. He said,
“wow what an adventure looking up each verse on seeking God... and then I read the sub notes about each verse... Thank you so much for the Joyshop.
Everyday I try to spend at least a 1/2 hr in God’s word doing your workshop.”

Another blessing I received this week came through the mail by a mother from my church, “Just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know that my son really enjoyed listening to you speak on Sunday. He was proud to show me his JoyShop notebook and eager to show me he was filling in the blanks. This all coming from a child who didn’t think he wanted to go to JoyShop. I had been encouraging him to attend during the month of June. I was so encouraged by his excitement and I just wanted to pass it on to you.”

Please pray that God will use Joyshop Ministries to impact many lives at my church and that we will become a fruit bearing people to reach our community.

Remember how the Pocket Testament League partnered with us in producing a Joyshop Ministries pocket testament? They printed 20,000 and sent us 4,000 to start with. On April 7 of this year, they sent out an email to all of their members introducing our pocket testament. Six weeks later, all 16,000 pocket testaments are gone!!!! Praise God!! Members liked the look of our pocket testament and the title on the front, “Letter from God.” Think of all the people that will be receiving our pocket testament with the 21 Day Challenge on the inside cover. Pray that everyone who receives these will take the challenge and grow in their knowledge of God. Here is a story that was recently published on their website from a woman who had attended a JoyShop:

"I received my testament at a ladies retreat. it was a very special gift to me. It showed me that God does love me no matter what i have been through. I recently committed myself to Jesus and became a member of my church and am considering baptism. I would like to share my experiences with others hoping that they too can come to know that our savior loves them as well."

How exciting, how thrilling that the Lord allowed us to hand this young lady her own pocket testament and to now have the joy of seeing the fruit! Just think of the lives this woman will impact!

Our June/July Newsletter just went out and I instantly received this wonderful message through face book:

"I enjoyed the newsletter I just read. I know it had a good word in it for me and I enjoyed reading your views on how to approach "an encounter with Jesus". That was good and I needed to read that. I forwarded the message to my dad - the part about being discouraged. I think he will really take a lot from that just given life circumstances right now. Thanks for the time you take to make that letter!!"

Comments like this make all the time I put into writing the newsletter worth it! If you are not receiving the bi-monthly newsletter then please notify Deb Risser at info@joyshop.org.

I am sorry for those who missed the JoyShop Ministries Cookout last Sunday night at our home. My husband, Paul, was the chef, and we had lots of food and wonderful fellowship. There were 50+ in attendance and it was a blessing for all of us to see who all is involved in supporting the ministry through prayers, time volunteered, and finances. I enjoyed the blessing of being able to share personally some of the highlights of this year as well as projecting what we see in the future.

Praise the Lord for the finances that continue to come in. As we make plans to do some professional taping for promotional purposes, etc, please pray that the necessary funds will come in to complete the project in a timely way.

Prayer for the following upcoming events:
June 11: JoyShop Ministries Board meeting
June 12: Lancaster County Youth Intervention
June 19: Cocalico Place (Retirement facility)
June 29: Byerland Mennonite Youth

June 12 is open to anyone who feels led to partner with us in corporate prayer for the ministry from 7:00-8:00 p.m. at my home.

I praise God for each of you who have allowed me the opportunity to share my heart with you. Your partnership with JoyShop Ministries is significant to me, the advisory board, and the volunteers who run the daily operations of JoyShop Ministries. May you press on to take hold of Jesus and all His fruit He wants to produce through you! Amen!

Seeking God First---Anita

Ministry Update May 12, 2008

2008-05-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

Ministry Update May 12, 2008

As I continue to work my way through the gospel of John, I was struck this morning by the story of the blind beggar in John 9. It reads, “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned…but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life…having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go’, he told him, ‘wash in the pool of Siloam’…so the man went and washed, and came home seeing.”

Often when I read a story of a healing in the gospels I try to put myself in the recipient’s shoes. If the man was blind from birth, he did not know what he was missing. He had never seen light, people’s faces, creation, etc. Without sight he was completely dependent on others for everything. Thus he sat along the road begging for anyone to have mercy on him. Not only did he live in a very dark world but his survival was a daily issue.

I was reminded how every single person that is born into this world is spiritually blind. In fact, we are so use to our blindness that we can’t even comprehend light. Blindness is the natural state of all mankind. But then came Light! ‘I am the light of the world,” Jesus Christ proclaims. John 1:5 tells us, “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood.” No one can receive spiritual sight apart from coming to Christ in faith for the forgiveness of sins and receiving the gift of life from Jesus. In receiving our sight, God desires to work through our life, so that His glory may be displayed!

As I thought about my life and the many blessings that have been mine because of receiving the light of Christ at a very early age, I was reminded of how I have taken the gift of God’s light for granted. When you have been in a relationship with Jesus Christ for along time, you almost forget what darkness is like. I needed the reminder that if it hadn’t been for coming to Jesus at an early age, I would be depending on relationships, positions, possessions, and possibly some substance to meet my needs, and what a dark world that can be. Oh how I pray, that the Lord will always remind me that I was once a blind beggar and if it hadn’t been for Him opening my eyes, I would be wondering around aimlessly in this dark world trying to make sense of it all. How I praise God for bringing Light to mankind through Jesus Christ. How thankful I am to walk in the Light. He brightens my whole world! Every day as I spend time reading the written Word, my spiritual eyes are opened and I am washed clean.

The thing I like about the blind beggar is that he took Jesus at his word. Jesus said “Go,” and the beggar went with out asking any questions. In other words, he had no doubts. He simply obeyed God. His obedience led to receiving his sight. I daily pray that the Lord will help me to “Go” in simple obedience and do what He asks me to do no matter how crazy it might look! That blind beggar set an example for all of us!

Praises:
Praise God for the way he is using the story of my painful past so that the work of God can now be displayed through JoyShop Ministries! The following comments are responses I recently received.

“Hi! Thank you so much for coming and most of all for being real w/ the group. I know you gave my husband and I the challenge of getting up every morning for devotions so since Wed. we've been getting up together and have devotions separately. It's great to have each other for accountability and to make sure we actually get up! I read your book in a day, I just couldn't put it down! Having a small daughter of my own, your story really really impacted me. I think it is incredible how God used something so painful to be something so beautiful and reach out to so many lives… I appreciated how you kept your book very focused on this event and how you relate it to our relationship with God.”

From teens:
“Thank you so much for your practicality and ties with life connections. You have spurred me on. Thank you for your encouragement.”

“I really enjoyed your presentation! Something about it had me very interested. Also to hear about your personal experiences made me realize that if I take out just a little time each day great things will happen.”

“The story about your first baby was very touching. I liked it a lot! Thanks you so much for taking your time to talk to us. I really think your stories have touched a lot of us and I think we learned a lot!”

“Thank you for your message! Christians are now the minority at youth group and we really needed to hear what you talked about.”

The following comment came from a lady in California:
I was talking to my friend and co-worker a month or so ago when she told me about a book that her friend, Anita Keagy wrote titled “The File: A Mother and Child’s life-changing reunion.” I had no idea what the book was about, other than a Mother and Daughter. I have 2 daughters, ages 11 and 14, and for some reason just felt compelled to go immediately to Amazon.com and purchase it. When it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find out what it was about. You see my husband and I adopted both of our daughters at birth, after 5 years of infertility. Needless to say, I read the book (almost straight through) in a matter of days. (As you know, it is very difficult to find “alone time” to read when you have kids and school and soccer and work and a house to take care of, etc.) I just wanted to write and tell you how much …I loved the book. It gave me chills and brought tears to my eyes, to really hear what a birthmother can go through...”

I also received a phone call recently from a woman telling me that she attended the JoyShop at Pequea last year and she has been in the word every day since then.

Last Wednesday I finished up my last session at Penn Manor High School. Afterwards a pretty young teen came up to me and with tears in her eyes she thanked me for my book. She said she had read it and it had really helped her. She also thanked me for the JoyShop saying that it had impacted her life. A teen boy shared with me that he finished the 21 DC and loved it.

This past Saturday I spoke with a small group of women at a morning tea gathering. As Deb Risser and I were packing up to come home the women thanked me. One sweet older woman told me I was so easy to listen to! But the comment that went through my heart with a sharp pain was the comment by another woman who said, “Your message has to get out to the Church!” As I type this comment the tears are coming. I can’t help it. The message of seeking God FIRST needs to be taught in every church in America. A quote I received from a woman I recently met, captures our dilemma,
“Modern civilization is so complex as to make the devotional life all but impossible. It wears us out by multiplying distractions and beats us down by destroying our solitude, where otherwise we might drink and renew our strength before going out to face the world again.” (A.W. Tozer)

Prayer request:
--This Saturday I will be doing a JoyShop at New Tripoli, Pa. Pray that people will respond to the Spirit’s prompting and that many will come to a new understanding of what it means to seek God.
--As I prepare to do JoyShop at my home church in Lancaster County during the Sunday School hour in June, pray that God will give me the ability to minister effectively to the high school age students as well as the adults.
--I continue to cry out to God to allow me to reach larger numbers for Him. I plan to keep going, ministering to one group at a time, with all the strength that He gives me and as long as He chooses to sustain me. JoyShop Ministries belongs to God. He formed it! He brought you to me. We are in this together. Your support through prayer, time volunteered, and finances, continues to bless me. I ask for your continued partnership in leaving a legacy of lives impacted for the kingdom.
--Please pray that the fire that burns within my heart will never dim and that He will grant me a holy passion to serve the body of Christ across this nation.

I hope that you can come to the JoyShop picnic at my home on Sunday, June 1. You can arrive anytime after 4:00. We will eat around 5:30 and wrap up the evening with a ministry update from 6:45-8:00 p.m. This is a family event. You can bring anyone with you that you think is interested in knowing more about JoyShop Ministries. All I ask is if you can preferably rsvp at info@joyshop.org by May 29 just so we have a rough count. There will be soft serve ice-cream for everyone! If you kids want to swim we have a pool for their entertainment!

Serving Together, Anita

Ministry Update April 28, 2008

2008-04-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

Ministry Update April 28, 2008

John 6:27
“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you…”

Well, Jesus sure gave me a ton of work to do this past week. How I praise Him for giving me the energy and passion to get through the week. I will do my best to sum up highlights of this past week.

Full JoyShop in Manheim for a local Farm Women’s group:
There were about 13 in attendance and we met Friday night and Saturday. It was a delightful group of ladies and I totally enjoyed my time with them, not to mention the good food we had! I was grateful for the opportunity to share my heart and passion.

“Serving with Excellence” conference in Dallas, Texas, April 20-24
To be honest, I could probably write several pages on what all happened in Dallas! From the time that Deb Risser, Judy Harnish, and my self boarded the plane in Philadelphia until we returned home, we felt God’s presence and leading. We made so many great connections as well as having many divine appointments. Some of the speakers we had the privilege to hear were Chuck Swindoll, Tony Evans, Ken Blanchard, Patsy Clairmont, Chip Ingram, Jill Briscoe, and Steve Douglas, President of Campus Crusade for Christ. We were challenged not only by their teaching but also by the leaders of the many workshops we attended throughout the week. It was exciting to be able to get my book into the hands of many people from all over the country! We definitely did some networking handing out many ministry brochures to help give JoyShop Ministries some exposure.

At the hotel where the conference was held, “Christian Leadership Alliance” had a table set up where any one could display their ministry brochures, etc. I noticed that someone from the Pocket Testament League had laid out about 30 pocket testaments with various covers. So this prompted me to lay one of JoyShop’s pt’s with the pile. A few minutes later as I was coming out of the ladies room, I noticed a tall man looking over the pocket testaments. As he shuffled through them he ended up picking out JoyShop’s pt! It was such an affirmation that I went up and gave him a copy of my book and told him all about the ministry! (poor man!) Turns out the woman that was traveling with him got a hold of my book and she later told me it was a divine appointment to receive my book!

One other highlight from our time in Texas: There was an exhibit hall for vendors to show off their offerings to help churches and Parachurch ministries such as ours. As we were strolling down the aisle, a man kind of jumped out in front of me with his arms wide opened and said “Anita!” Honestly, I had no idea who it was, so I looked at his name tag and couldn’t believe it. For the first time I was meeting face to face with Chuck Jones from North Carolina who I had met on Facebook! He is on staff at a large church in Charlotte, N.C. and had grown up in the same small town in Tennessee as I had. It was such a pleasant and unexpected surprise!
Ran into the President of Lancaster Bible College as well as Water Street Rescue Mission!

The only down side of the conference is that I am sure I came home a few pounds heavier. I won’t speak for Deb or Judy!

Manor Men’s Retreat at Kenbrook Bible Camp:
What a JOY to serve 10 men from Manor with the message of JoyShop! I have to admit I was a little intimidated by this, but from the moment I pulled in they greeted me so warmly and made me feel very comfortable. I felt the Lord’ presence with us and I just couldn’t help praising the Lord for this amazing opportunity. I could possibly be the only woman in America who can say she has taught at a men’s retreat!!!! After my last session one of the younger men came up to me and said he couldn’t believe he had never attended a JoyShop before in that I have probably done at least five at Manor! He said he loved it and was so glad he had come…even thanked me! I felt so blessed to have been an encouragement to him.

At Kenbrook there were other retreats going on and everyone ate at the same time in the cafeteria. Saturday morning before I went to breakfast, I prayed for a divine appointment with either a group of teens or women who I assumed would be at breakfast just so I could encourage them to seek God FIRST! Of course, I kind of forgot about it as I was eyeing up all the food choices for breakfast. Once I had my food on the tray I looked around for a table to sit with and saw one with two women sitting there. So I made my way over to them and asked if I could join them. As we exchanged info as to why we were at Kenbrook for the weekend, I soon knew that God had arranged our meeting. In fact one of the women used the very words, “divine appointment” to describe our meeting. Bottom line, one of the ladies shared with me that she was tired of the Christian life she was living. She wanted the abundant life that Jesus promises in John 10:10. She even mentioned that the Lord had been impressing upon her the verse in Matthew 6:33, “…but seek first the kingdom of God…” My heart sang with JOY as I shared with her about JoyShop Ministries and its mission. I invited them to sit in the back and be apart of the “classroom” setting and learn what they could from the two sessions I had yet to give to the men. It worked out perfect for them because they had the morning free. I love how the Lord answers our prayers and gives us the desires of our heart!

Trinity ECC mother and daughter banquet Saturday night:
Close to 100+ women attended this event. Deb Risser and her daughter, Alexis, traveled with me. Several women shared privately with me after the event that the message they heard had impacted them. One used the word “life-changing”!

How I thank God for creating this ministry to meet the needs of the many hungry and starved people of our day. It truly is a JOY to travel from place to place sharing our message. I sincerely thank you all for your support through your prayers, finances, and time.

Praise:
--Received a call from the person who is going to redesign the home page of Pocket Testament League asking for our content of the 21 Day Challenge so that they can add this to their web site to encourage their members to take the 21DC.
--Many new opportunities have opened up to minister to teens! One locally at Beyerland Mennonite Church, and I am working on finding a date to speak to students involved with the FCA at Warwick High School. We also received an invitation to speak at a youth retreat of about 300-600 students in attendance. Todd Agnew, a contemporary musician will be giving a concert at this event. This event is slated for the last weekend in August and I am looking forward to confirming the details in the next couple of days.
--The door has been opened for me to return to Penn Manor on May 7 to finish up the JoyShop, thank the Lord!
--A couple of men that attended the men’s retreat are going to try to find a way to have me speak at Columbia High School next year.

Prayer Request:

--Continue to pray the Lord will perfect and refine the message of JoyShop Ministries. I depend on Him to teach and instruct my heart or I would never have the nerve to step out and speak.

--Pray for all the people that received my book at the conference and on the plane! Pray that God will market the book for us and that it will get in the hands of those who need the message.

I close with a recent testimony we received through our website:
“I attended your JoyShop in Lancaster with Dove Christian Fellowship. I can't thank you enough for sharing. I have successfully completed the 21 day challenge and am still seeking him every morning in my chair with my hot tea! I love it!!!!!!!!! I can't believe how much it has totally transformed my relationship with Jesus.....ya know what I mean!? I also started journaling and I start my writings with Jesus, Good morning.... He really does like to listen to us and I can't even start to tell you how much I have noticed my God sightings now, it's amazingJ! Thank you ...”

This is what it’s all about, empowering and equipping brothers and sisters in Christ to find a deeper relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glory! Just think of how many lives will be impacted just by this one person! Amen!

Seeking Him with my whole heart---Anita

Minsitry Update April 16, 2008

2008-04-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

I am trying to practice adding pictures to my blog but my choices are limited. I did manage to find this picture of some awesome college students from Altoona Penn State Campus. I had the privilege to spend the weekend with them last fall at a state park. We had a "JoyShop" time!

These past two weeks I have been studying John 3 and 4 and I have discovered some startling contrasts with the help of a commentary. We encounter Jesus dealing with two completely opposite people in two different ways.

In John 3 we meet a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus and he is of high rank, a member of the Jewish counsel.

In John 4 the woman’s name is never mentioned and she is of low rank

Nicodemus is a Favored Jew and the woman is a despised Samaritan

Nicodemus had a high reputation, the woman was known as an adulterous

Nicodemus sought Jesus out at night

Jesus seeks out the Samaritan woman at the noon hour

Jesus says to the self-righteous Pharisee, “You must be born again.”

Jesus tells the Gentile sinner about “the gift of God.”

They both ask “How” to Jesus’ statement

They both meet His response with a skeptical attitude.

To Nicodemus he manifest Himself as TRUTH

To the Samaritan woman he manifests himself as GRACE

Jesus had to break down the pride of the Pharisee with the truth that all of Nicodemus’ religious training would not help him to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus declared to him, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

The Samaritan woman had no pride. She was so ashamed of her past that she came out at noon to draw water when no one else would be there. Jesus presented Himself to her in grace, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that ask you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

We see his approach to Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman fulfilled in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

How divinely inspirational it is that John included these two incidents for our benefit. If I had to admit who I was most like, the religious Pharisee or the Samaritan woman, I’d have to go with the Samaritan woman. I am a sinner in desperate need of God’s grace and I praise God for giving me the living water of eternal life. Jesus satisfies my thirst!

MINISTRY UPDATE

Penn Manor High School Christian Club: Close to 35 students participated in a mini JoyShop. The students were very gracious to me. They were attentive and managed to stay awake during the 50 minute lecture these past two Wednesdays. A couple comments:

“I’ve been to a few JoyShops. They’re awesome! I always feel so uplifted afterward.”

“Thanks so much—you are a true encouragement. You were the boost I needed to seek God and not let Satan win the war.”

Sorry, but I have to tell you a story. Last Wednesday, Dennis Mylin, an adult, attended the JoyShop. I know Dennis from my teen pregnancy days. I use to give him guitar lessons every Monday night, while his mom would bake snack’s in our kitchen for our family. Our two families would play games and eat the yummy snacks after the lesson was over. This was a gift to me during my pregnancy. I looked forward to every Monday night and felt like I was doing something to help someone. Last week, I had told the students that I was going to do a book special just for them, two books for the price of one! My hearts desire was to see the book get into as many students hands as possible. What a JOY to receive an email from Dennis early this week, saying that he is involved with the youth at The Millersville Bible Church and that they wanted to sponsor 30 books for me to give out free at Penn Manor today! So after the JoyShop we were able to hand out free books to everyone. (We had to give away a few of our own books!) Please pray that the Lord spreads that book around Penn Manor.

Recently a board member told me that they had over heard some students talking and they mentioned my book! One student said they were on their third time through the book. Praise the Lord!

PRAISE

For a renewed friendship in my life that has led to a new board member! Judy Harnish has recently joined our board of directors and we are looking forward to her role in the ministry.

For the Pocket Testament League’s promotional of Joyshop Ministries pocket testament in a recent email to all of its members across the states and international. They have also recently expressed their plans to redesign their web page to encourage members to take the 21 DC! This is an answer to our prayers!

For this comment received through face book from a young woman who is in missionary work and had attended a JoyShop this past fall:
“Just the other week, I led team cell for my team in Israel and I decided to play the recording of your message to us in HDC about personal devotions. It was so refreshing to hear and very meaningful. Some of the things that you said went right along with things that I was struggling with in personal daily devotions. I believe our whole team really enjoyed the message and sought to spend more time in the word.”

Joyshop Ministries message in Israel….how awesome is that!!!!!!!

Just think, when the Lord works out the details for taping JoyShop professionally, the ministry will be able to go to so many more places!!

Over the weekend my son, Josh, received this text message from a young woman in high school in Reading who had just finished reading, “The File”
“It was really good. I could not put it down…it taught me a lot too, and now when I have free time in my day I spend it by reading my bible instead of flipping on the T.V.”

These comments make my heart sing! God is answering our prayers. He is using the book for the main purpose that I wrote the book…..to get everyone to open God’s File and read his love letters instead of wasting time in front of that idol….television!

Prayer Requests

Beginning this Friday, I will have nine days of extreme busyness.

Pray for the JoyShop I will be conducting locally this weekend for a group of women

Pray for safety travels as Deb Risser, Judy Harnish, and myself fly to Dallas Texas for the Christian Management Association Conference. We hope to learn a lot during our 5 day trip that will help to strengthen our ministry. However, pray for the contacts we will make there. I just can’t help but think that we are going out there for a specific purpose. I want to publicly thank Jack Pieklo who worked very hard to pull together “emergency” brochures to take along so that we can have something to hand out to other contacts while at the conference.

Pray for the JoyShop I will be doing the following weekend at Kenbrook Bible Camp with some men from my home church. Pray that the Lord will use these men who have a desire to grow closer to God to make a lasting impact in our church and our community.

Pray for energy as I finish at Kenbrook on Saturday afternoon and drive to another location to speak at a Mother Daughter Banquet at Trinity ECC in the evening.

In Him,

Anita

Ministry update April 8, 2008

2008-04-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

April 8, 2008

Recently I decided that I should work through an exposition of the Gospel of John for my personal growth. It will take 71 days to get through this huge volume if I read one chapter a day! Today I happened to be reading the exposition on John 2:1-11, the first recorded miracle of Jesus turning water into wine. A couple of parallels jumped out at me.

How Jesus must have felt:

His mother is telling him it is time to do a miracle, yet he is telling her it’s not his time.

How often do we try to tell Jesus it is time to do something? Why is it so hard to wait for God’s timing?

Did he hesitate to begin his ministry? Surely he had to have known that once he performed a miracle, his life would never be the same. From this time on he would become a public figure, he would scarcely have leisure time and his time alone in communion with his Father could only be done when others slept. How did he feel at that moment?

I can still remember making the “scary” decision to start the process of turning JoyShop into an official ministry. I knew that my life would never be the same, it would never be my own, and I have to admit I hesitated for a moment. One does not start a ministry only to decide to quit the next year. Once I would pick up the phone and make the call to the one person I thought could guide me in this process there would be no turning back. But in my heart, I knew I was to step out in faith, not shrinking back, but trusting God. If he put this ministry in my heart then he would provide every step of the way.

How Jesus performed the miracle by using the servants:

His mother lays the ground work for the miracle by saying, “Do whatever he tells you.” Then Jesus calls the servants and tells them, “Fill the jars with water…now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” Jesus didn’t lift a finger! He simply told the servants what to do and as they obeyed he turned the water into wine!

Jesus needs us to do what he says! He is pleased to use these earthen vessels to display his miracles!

I learned today that in the Bible, wine symbolizes joy in God and that water is a symbol of the written Word. “Learn then, that the Lord is pleased to employ human agents in bringing joy to the hearts of men….And how may we His servants, today, bring the wine of joy unto human hearts? By ministering the Word…Here then is the blessed instruction for the servants of God today. Let us go forth with the Water of life, implicitly obeying the commands of our Lord, and He will use us to bring the wine of Divine joy to many a sad heart.”

This, my friend, is what I experience at every JoyShop. It is what we as a team are doing! We are encouraging the many sad hearts in the church to return to reading the Words of God. As more and more individuals start drinking in the water of the Word, Divine Joy will begin to fill their heart!

This past weekend, Paula Frey and myself made the five hour drive to Franklin, Pa. for a women’s retreat. We were grateful for safety in travel and the good mattresses for sleeping purposes! Forty eight women were present and we were blessed by the women’s response to JoyShop’s message. So many wonderful things happened in such a short time!

One dear woman came up to me after the Saturday evening session asking me to sign a book. She put her arms around me and thanked me. She said that she had been afraid for some time that she wasn’t really “saved” because she would have doubts at times about God. But after my morning session when I talk about doubts being normal she found freedom and joy knowing that she truly was saved!

Another woman drove back to her home town after the Friday evening session to bring her daughter back to attend Saturday’s session because she knew her daughter was hurting and she felt that her daughter would benefit by attending. I was so grateful to have time to talk with this lovely young woman the following afternoon and I am trusting God that His Word brought new joy in her life.

Other comments received:
“thank you for a life-changing weekend!!”

“You have really opened my eyes this weekend. I truly am going to seek God FIRST every day. Please pray that I can continue this desire and that I will be able to hear Him.”

“I have a husband and two sons who watch my every move and listen to what leaves my mouth. I have a youth group to care for as well, so this was just what I needed to hear…”

Thank you for your prayers for the weekend! Continue to pray that the Lord will anoint JoyShop’s message and spread it all over the place as these women go back to their different churches and begin to seek God first!

Prayer request:
Please pray for me as I go to Penn Manor High School the next two Wednesday mornings. Pray that I will have wisdom as to what part of the JoyShop I should do with the students in the Christian club since I only have 50 minutes each session.

Praise
The Pocket Testament League recently introduced our Pocket Testament to all of their Speaker reps. In a few days they will introduce it to thousands of league members around the world! Not only did they introduce it but they mention “The File”! How I pray that the Lord continues to get the book in the hands of those who need its encouragement.

For a student who recently completed the 21 DC and sent us her comments:
“I just want to thank you for the 21 DC. I learned a lot. More than you’ll ever know. I was struggling with a doubt that I’ve had. This challenge has helped in dispelling that doubt.”

Sandy Cove has given me an invitation to be a small part of a women’s retreat the last weekend in September as well as an invitation to come back in March of 2009 for a full JoyShop March 8-9.

Announcements:
Thursday night is JoyShop Ministries monthly prayer meeting at my home, 7-8:00 p.m. Anyone is welcomed to come!

In His Joy! Anita

PS---a miracle has just happened. I think I figured out how to add a picture to my blog all by myself!!!! This picture was taken at Berean Bookstore with my dear friend, Cynthia Herr, as we celebrated my book actually making it on a bookshelf at our local Christian Bookstore!

2008-03-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

Ministry update March 31, 2008

I Peter 5:8-10 (NKJV)
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”

While you and I are busy seeking God, our enemy, the thief, is busy seeking who he can devour. How can we keep from being his next prey? Peter spells it out clearly.

Be sober! I looked this word up in the Greek dictionary. It has two meanings- to be watchful and to refrain from the abuse of alcohol. We live in a day where we have to be sober in all ways in order to resist the thief and his seductive ways.

Be vigilant! This means that we are to be mindful of the threatening dangers around us. I believe the closer we draw to Jesus the more mindful we need to be that the lion’s roar is right behind us looking for any way he can get at us to shake our faith and to become discouraged.

Resist Him! I love the Greek definition for this word: “To stand against.” It takes two feet to stand for any length of time and we need to have our feet planted firmly in the Word of God in order to resist our enemy.

Remain steadfast in faith! How can you and I remain steadfast in our faith? There’s only one way I know to do that, prayer and hearing the Word of God. (Romans 10:17) Daily we need to be asking the Father to strengthen our faith and we need to be committed in spending adequate time reading His life giving Words.

Realize that you are not alone in your times of suffering! Our brothers and sisters around the world suffer daily as their faith is tested and challenged.

Rejoice in the fact that God will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you down! What a promise! Whatever our challenges and sufferings, in due time we have the assurance that God will use it to permanently establish and strengthen us. As we experience His faithfulness in each trial He will settle our hearts.

“To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (I Peter 5:11)

Sometimes I feel like I am the last one to catch on to the roaring lions attack. Several days ago as I was struggling with the physical manifestations or self imposed stressed, I was crying out to God for help. I felt so weak and overwhelmed as I thought about the future of JoyShop Ministries. It is so easy to take on the heavy yoke of ministry instead of putting on Christ’s yoke of rest. I didn’t even realize I was doing this until my body started giving the warning signs!

To be honest, it took about four days to come out from under the heavy yoke I had allowed myself to come under all because I hadn’t been sober or vigilant. I praise God for pulling me out of that heaviness and settling my mind. He gave me the strength to resist the attack by constantly going to Jesus in prayer and feeding on His Words.
Now for a ministry update!

This past week, Phil Gascoyne, Jack Pieklo, and myself met with Max Zug of Max Films. We are taking a giant step of faith in believing that now is the time to start the process of preparing to professionally tape JoyShop so that we have the necessary video clips to put on our web site and to use for media purposes. We had a great meeting and feel excited about this opportunity. We will have to raise about $25,000.00 for this project but I know that the Lord will provide the necessary funds. If He doesn’t provide the money then we know it is not His timing and I have a perfect peace about that.

As a result of the JoyShop at LMH this month, the Lord has opened the door for me to go to Penn Manor High School to do a portion of the JoyShop for the students that are members of the club First Priority. I will be going in on April 9 and 16 during their club period and will have about 50 minutes each session. I am so grateful for a young woman, Amanda Charles, who attended the LMH JoyShop and had the desire to bring the message to her friends at her school.

Last week, I felt led to send a message to my Face Book group, “Seeking the Face of Christ.” I hesitated hitting the “send” button after I had written this lengthy message on how to deal with the feelings of “life is meaningless.” I don’t want these dear students to get annoyed with my messages so I try to limit my messages. Yet at the same time, I had to trust that the Lord had me do this for a reason, even if it was just to help one person who might be struggling. So I worked up the courage and pushed the “send” button as I whispered a prayer to Jesus to use it as He sees fit.

What a thrill to receive this message from a young man by the name of Josh, a few days later:
"Anita, thanks for your note the other day on “finding purpose in life”. I used your note to help direct my thoughts for a devotional I led for my group. It went well. Your note was just what I needed and what my team needed. Thanks for taking the time to share your heart. Many notes I just skip, but I always read yours. I have already used your quote, “Love is not a feeling it is an action” many times. It’s like this old DC Talk song, “Luv is a Verb”. God’s love is truly an action that he showed and continues to show us, we just happen to get good feelings sometimes. That was perfect and I am holding to that now that I have been feeling spiritually kinda… blah, lately. I have gotten through this before and with God’s help and mercy, I will get through it again. I just have to remember that God loves me and that is apparent by everything I see around me. Thanks!"

The month of April is going to be tremendously taxing. It is the busiest month I think I have ever had and I am grateful for the team of people I have around me that makes it possible for me to even survive a month like this. Please pray that all we do will be pleasing to the Father and that we can operate in the calm and strength that He supplies.

Seeking God Together!
Anita

Ministry Update

2008-03-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Paul and I were hanging out with friends. As I was listening to the conversation at the table, all of a sudden some scary thoughts popped into my head, "I can't do anymore JoyShops. It's the same message...over and over...how long can I keep this up?" Even though I knew these thoughts would pass, fear seized my heart. The next morning as I met with Jesus I was grateful that he knew all my thoughts and so I asked him to minister to my heart. I just needed some extra encouragement. As I read through my daily assignment and wrote down the verses I was re-energized and filled with His joy! He knew just the words I would need for that day. I'd like to share these verses with you from the NKJV.

Isaiah 46:9 "For I am God and there is no other...there is none like me."

Psalm 105:19 (reference to Joseph) "Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him."

This passage particularly encouraged me in that like, Joseph who had a dream about his family bowing down to him, I had a "vision" about this ministry and how far reaching it would become. Even though I know that God will bring it to pass, I have to wait out his timing and planning. Sometimes I feel "tested" as I wait and I wonder if I just imagined the whole thing, yet in my heart I know that God is unfolding the vision even as I type this. Could it be that we will never see all the lives this ministry touches until we get to heaven?

Psalm 37:5 "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."

As the JoyShop team keeps plugging away, one JoyShop at a time, we will continue to commit our way to the Lord, trusting Him to bring to pass our desire for the message of SEEKING GOD FIRST to go globally, for the benefit of the body of Christ. Psalm 37:24 "You will guide me with your counsel and afterward receive me in glory." Yes, He will guide us with His counsel. I would have never stepped out in faith and started this ministry two years ago if I hadn't had this assurance and I am grateful for the many people who pray for this ministry.

This last passage from Revelations 3:7-8 really made my heart sing as I applied it to JoyShop Ministries: Summed up it says--
I know your works
See I have set before you as an open door
No one can shut it
For you have a little strength
You have kept my word
You have not denied my name

God sees our work and I believe he has opened a door that no one can shut. He is right when he says we have a little strength, yet we strive to keep his work. We exalt his name!
God's Word is a constant source of encouragement to me as I face the daily work of ministry. Not only His Word, but the many words I receive from youth and adults who have attended a JoyShop.

Last Friday night nearly 100 people attended the JoyShop held at LMH. 90% of the audience was youth! I was thrilled with the families that showed up as well with their teen children. Comments that I recieved over the weekend from the teens:

"Thank you so much for doing the joyshop! I loved it so much and I have to say I was quite excited when I got up this morning to get in the Word. Your ministry is awesome..."

"Just wanted to say thank you so much for doing the JoyShop at LMH! It really challenged me and made me think about spending more time with Jesus. I started this morning, getting up at 6:45 to have devotions before I went to work, and my day was a whole lot better because of it! Thank you so much!

"Yeah, JoyShop was wicked challenging and if you do it again, I am definitely inviting people. Thank you for doing it. I started the 21 Day Challenge this morning and plan to keep it up, so pray for me if you think of me. I trust that things are gonna change if I keep walkin' with God. It's kind of crazy, but I'm ready for a change. Thanks again. God bless. Jesus loves you."

"Thank you so much for you time and passion. It really made a difference. I'm sure you get this a lot, I just wanted you to know that it really motivated me to get closer to God and answered a lot of questions. I always tried to do devotions but never really set a time and it always stopped after about a week. I’m really excited to get up in the morning now. Thanks again!"

The following message I recieved this morning from someone who had attended an event I spoke at near the end of last year.
"Just wanted to send you a note to thank you again for your ministry. Just today, I finished reading the Bible through for the 1st time in my life! I'm thrilled about it but also ashamed because I'm 41; I've been a Christian since I was 12. I was never discipled well; always struggled w/ my devotions. When you gave your testimony about your struggles; told us how you weren't a morning person, I could relate so much. I so look forward to my time in God's Word each day. I am not so easily influenced by Satan or my flesh when it comes to carving out time for it. Thank you again so, so much! May our Lord Jesus bless you immensely for your faithfulness to Him."

What a JOY to recieve these emails and have the blessing of seeing the fruit from this ministry!
I am grateful that I have off the next two weeks, at least from any speaking engagements. The operational team and board would appreciate your prayers as we continue to make decisions for the future, including professionally taping JoyShop in 2008. Continue to pray for opened doors in churches, colleges, high schools, and youth events. I am not closing the doors to women's retreats, just limiting the amount I do so that I am freer to minister to the youth.
HAVE A BLESSED EASTER as we celebrate the RISEN LORD!

Anita

I LOVE GOING TO JOYSHOPS!

2008-03-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

I am probably way too tired to be sitting at a computer trying to write on my blog but since I don't know if anyone will really read this anyway....why not say what's on my heart, tired or not tired?

Tonight I just finished my 77th JoyShop which was held at LMH. Around 100 students/adults were in attendance. It's hard for me to believe that I have continued on with the same message for three+ years. I can still remember the first JoyShop I ever did on Jan. 15, 2005, at my home church, Manor Church. My heart burned with the message of JoyShop, "SEEK HIM FIRST", and I wanted the whole world to hear it. Of course, at that time I did not know that I would ever teach another JoyShop. It was just a way to serve my church. Little did I know how God would use this simple workshop on reading your Bible, to motivate others and to bring hope to all of us struggling Christians.

Sometimes I come home from a JoyShop and ask myself, how much longer can you go on this one message? Won't you get tired of telling the same message over and over? Well, amazingly I have not gotten tired of the message...it still burns in my heart and I still feel that I have to tell the world. What keeps me going? God's strength, the knowledge and confidence that he has called me to this, the team of support volunteers God has given me, and the encouraging remarks I get from every age group to keep going with this message that the Church needs to hear.

Tonight I confessed a dream publicly that I have only expressed very privately to few people. I told the audience that I am asking God to send me to Creation and The Call to encourage all believers to become persistant God Seekers, and not part time seekers like the trap that so many of us fall into. I have noticed in the Church that there are three types of God Seekers:
The Pretend Seeker
The Partime Seeker
The Persisitent Seeker

The Pretend Seeker goes to church every Sunday just because it seems the thing to do.
The Part time Seeker seeks God when it is convenient with his schedule which is almost never.
The Persisitent Seeker rises every morning to Seek God and to grow in intimacy with his Father.
Webster defines the word "seek"--to look intently, to want to find. Are we really looking intently for God? Do we really desire to find him, or are we just too busy doing life that we have no time to seek God?

O God, forgive us for our lack of interest in really caring enough about our relationship with you to seek you daily.

Well, this God Seeker's brain is starting to shut down so I want to close by saying thank you to Jesus for allowing me to serve the body of Christ through the JoyShop. It brings me great joy even in the exhaustion. "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." II Corinthians 15:58 AMEN and AMEN!

Another first....

2008-03-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

Ill never forget the day that I was sharing with one of the young adult pastors at LCBC last summer about my desire to minister to the younger generation. Since I was new to the "web site" world, I asked him to check out my web site and tell me what I was missing that teens or young adults would look for. He told me I was lacking two things: Face Book and a Blog. I was like, "Oh on, Lord, don't make me do that! I am a 51 year old woman and barely know how to navigate on the simpliest of web sites!" But something told me that this guy was right on.

A few days later, there were a group of young adults hanging out at my house with my amazing twin sons, Josh and Ryan. When I mentioned Face Book and that I was pondering joining this foreign world they immediately asked me what I was waiting for and ran back to my office. With in two minutes, Scott Umble had me on face book. I was scared out of my mind. I was actually nervous. I layed in bed that night with my stomach turning flip flops wondering what in the world I had just done!

A few days after that, another group of young adults was visisting and when I told them I had joined face book they immediately told me I needed to start a group as well. What in the world was a group? I had no idea what they were talking about! They assured me it was no big deal and thought I should go for it. Without hesitation I knew what the name of my group would be, "Seeking the Face of Christ." Actually, I thought it was a cool idea. The reason behind that name, I wanted to remind all these amazing youth that Jesus is one face you should want to see EVERY day by reading the Gospels in the New Testament and every other book in the Bible. I am happy to report that months later there are over 300 members!

I still don't know what I am really doing in Face book. I am afraid to accept any invitations because I don't know what its all about. So until someone feels like taking the time to explain all the decorations and symbols, I will just stick with what I do know....how to write on someone's wall or send a personal message.

Well, now my friends, Phil Gascoyne and Karl Diffenderfer, who are my "techie" gerus, have given me my own blog. What does one do with a blog? I guess I will figure it out in time but just bear with me in this new adventure. Actually this is just practice:-) I am sure that I will find a blog a great place to put my thoughts in writing.