Prepare Your Heart for a New Level of Greatness

DEAR PRECIOUS LADIES

The final month of the year is upon us. Praise the Lord for His mighty hand and excellent power that has brought us from month to month.

In a few weeks we will be finishing the year, and by God's grace, embracing another one. It is time for us to reflect and look back at the past months. Here are some questions to assist you to review the year in preparation for the next one. They are a guide for your closet as you pray and prepare your heart for the new level of greatness that God has planned for your 2016.

• How did the year 2015 impact your life and how did you impact the year 2015?
• Did you walk in your purpose and are you still walking in your purpose?
• Did you grow in your spirituality or did you draw back?
• What were your achievements and who benefitted from them?
• How was your service to God and man?
• In the different roles you play and function in, what was your best moment and what was your worst moment?
• Did you do your best in whatever you did? Did you do it as unto the Lord or were you more conscious of man?
• How was your heart attitude before God and man?
• Did you pick up any offences along the way? Have you dealt with them?
• In your family life were you or are you an asset or a liability?
• How about your church involvement, did you serve the Lord with gladness or did you draw back? Were you a joint that supplies or a joint that takes from others?
• How did you conduct yourself financially? Were you a wise steward, were you generous or did you withhold more than is necessary?
• How did you use your time?
• Did you uphold the principles, standards and values of the Kingdom of God in your relationships and dealings?
• What was your major setback? How did you or how are you handling it?
• If you are married how did you contribute to the current condition of your marriage whether good or bad?
• If you are a mum, how did you influence your children?
• How did you contribute to the spiritual climate and atmosphere of your home?
• Were you hospitable?
• Was there room for God in your home?
• Was God glorified by your actions and transactions in your business, ministry or career?

My sisters, “… let us come boldly to the throne of Grace to receive help…” (Hebrews 4:16) Let us examine ourselves and rectify where we need to be, for we do not want to start the new year with any negative residue from 2015. Let us get rid of anything that might deplete our spiritual energy for there is still so much more for us to accomplish. There is more territory to possess. We do not want any weights to hinder us from flying high. If there are areas you did not do well, do not condemn yourself. Rather learn from them and let them be stepping stones as a new you emerges. If there are areas you excelled in, celebrate them and let them be reference points and signposts for others to emulate.

Thank you for doing the journey of 2015 with the Hope for Every Woman team and I. Together, we have run the race of 2015. His grace has been sufficient for us. His grace will carry us into the year 2016 and beyond.

I love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas filled with the love and presence of God and a prosperous new year full of victory and blessings.

Pastor Fatima
Chairperson

Listen to this song and be blessed, encouraged and inspired for 2016.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!

The Vision Is For An Appointed Time

Dear Precious Ladies

Habakkuk 2:3 states that “...For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come...”

Once again we thank God for all He did for us in the month of October. We have been given a brand new month and we are almost ending the year. To God be all the glory for what He has done in us and through us.

I was looking at some photos of one of the ladies very dear to me. I had the privilege to mentor her and walk with her and she allowed me to encourage you with her testimony. Lois left the shores of Zambia in 2010 to pursue a Masters degree in International Management. She completed it successfully in 2012. She found a job and worked for a while but her contract ended. At that point she was very discouraged and could not get jobs. She was not yet ready to go back to Zambia as all her family are in the UK. She was very frustrated and wondered why her prayers were not being answered. We prayed together and trusted in the Lord, but still Lois struggled with the fact that she had no income. She finally got a job and we rejoiced. We did not know that this job we celebrated was going to move her to Weymouth, a couple of hours from Bristol where we live. We were all disappointed and Lois cried when she realised this fact. She did not know anyone in that city and this led her into a wilderness experience where she felt all alone.

After a while, the contract in Weymouth ended and Lois's visa was about to run out. Life seemed to be throwing sour grapes at her from every direction. However, she determined not to get discouraged and enrolled for a Masters in Business Administration, which she successfully completed with a distinction in her dissertation. Along with immigration, another pressure weighing heavy on Lois's shoulders was her desire to get married. Men who seemed to be interested in her would just disappear without giving clear reasons. Nothing was falling into place in that area of her life. We kept on praying and encouraged her to trust in the Lord and to be patient. Academic success did not fully quench this lingering desire to get married. When you are above 30 as a woman, it is generally assumed that the clock is ticking against you biologically, so you can imagine how Lois felt.

To the glory of God, a man she had met in Weymouth, the city she did not want to go, started to pursue her. At first she did not respond to him well, but with time they developed a friendship. On the 25th of September, Lois's 34th birthday, they got married. Although her dreams seemed to be distant, although her journey had setbacks and disappointments, at the end of it all, the vision of God for her life has come to pass. She is now settled and very happy.

My sisters, things might not have worked out the way you thought. Perhaps you have given up on your dreams. You might be feeling that your prayers are not being answered fast enough. Please be encouraged and know that there is an appointed time for you. God has everything under control. He will surely cause all things to work for your good. Keep on moving forward. Continue to trust in Him. Like Lois, your story will end well because Jehovah has great plans for you and those plans will come to pass.

Here are some photos of Lois's wedding to encourage you. Have a blessed month.

Love and blessings

Pastor Fatima 
Chairperson

Our Helper

Dear Precious Ladies

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, great is His faithfulness.

We thank God for the new mercies for this new month of October. We have reached the 10th month of the year already. In two more months we will be finishing the year 2015! We thank the Lord for taking us this far. He will surely see us through.

I was encouraged by the words of the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans 8:26-28"...in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

My sisters, God loves us so much that He sent us help. He knows all our short comings and our personal struggles and has decided to help us by His Spirit. Sometimes we go through situations that we do not even know how and where to start praying. Be encouraged, our Father has taken care of those moments by giving us the Holy Spirit to help us. When the Holy Spirit intercedes for us He already knows the will of God and He prays according to God's will.

I was also blessed by the fact that because I am called according to His purpose and I love Him, everything will work out for my good. Even that which satan tries to harm me with will end up working for me because my Heavenly Father will turn it around for me and I will come out stronger. That makes me more than a conqueror because I will always be victorious in good times or bad because He has everything under control and He will not allow what I cannot bear to come my way. By the time we face anything it has already been weighed and our Heavenly Father supplies the strength to carry it.

Be encouraged that as we go through the month of October, our Heavenly Father has already covered every day and each morning there are new mercies waiting for us. Victory is ours and we will finish this month well. The Holy Spirit will help us in our hour of need. Continue to pursue the presence of the Lord and allow Him to work in you and through you.

Much love to you all,
Pastor Fatima

Exceedingly Abundantly Above

DEAR PRECIOUS LADIES

Wow we have made it to the ninth month of the year! God has truly shown us His mercy in allowing us to see the month of September.

So far this year when we look back we can see that God has been with us. We have witnessed answers to our prayers and seen great testimonies among us as women and in our families. Am sure we can name more than one thing that the Lord has done for us. Some of us experienced spiritual growth. Some received new jobs, promotions, new born babies, family weddings, marriage engagements, passed exams, new houses, cars, financial breakthrough, good health, holidays and many more. We can honestly say God has come through for us exceedingly and abundantly more than we thought.

Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ladies, the Lord exceeded my expectations in August.

In last month's newsletter I testified about our visas to Sweden. We travelled to Stockholm and had a great time there. The fact that we could be on holiday was good enough for us. Little did we know that the Lord had so much more in store for us as a family. My sister who lives in Sweden mentioned to one of her diplomat friends in Switzerland that we were visiting her to have a break, and that we were pastors needing to relax before a new school season starts in September. We have not even met this friend and yet we found tickets waiting for us for a cruise to Helsinki, Finland. Although she didn't know us, God used her to provide for us. All expenses were paid for. We had never been on a cruise and the experience was so amazing. It was like walking into a very big shopping mall with duty free shops and different restaurants. We stayed in this massive hotel with many floors. It can accommodate 2500 people. We cruised in the Baltic Sea and saw a number of Islands along the way. Looking into the vast amounts of water connected us to God's amazing handiwork and we could only proclaim “My God How Great Thou Art.”

When we arrived in Finland a bus was waiting for us to tour Helsinki, which is the capital. Again, all expenses were paid for. We visited many historical sights and learnt a lot about this beautiful country. We had opportunities to stop and pray in some Cathedrals we visited and were very grateful for those special moments. Truly the Lord did exceedingly abundantly beyond what we thought. He gave us more than a holiday in Sweden, He added another country for us, plus a cruise. We also saw the reality of the scripture that says we should seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto us. The Lord added a cruise unto us.

I want to encourage you to keep on trusting in the Lord in this month of September. Continue to seek Him and do not abandon the place of prayer. Do not be discouraged the Lord will do beyond what you are imagining. If He did it for us as a family, He will do it for you. Have a great month and here are some of the holiday photos below.

Love and blessings

Pastor Fatima 
Chairperson