The Little White Church
The fondest days of my childhood were spent in a small mountain community with my grandparents near Sylva, North Carolina. Most people have probably never heard of Caney Fork or the people that live there. They work the land and worship God in a small one-room church in the valley of the mountains. Looking back on my life, I know this was really the first time I felt the presence of God – in this tiny little church, listening to old hymns being sung by the choir, and listening to a preacher who preached from the Bible. Despite my newfound love of worship band music; nothing will ever replace the love in my heart for a good ol’ traditional hymn.
But it is the community of women in Caney Fork that recently just really resonated with me as I completed a Bible Study titled Better Together. When I look back on my summers through adult eyes I see how these women really stuck together. When someone was sick – they took food to their families. They checked in on each other, quilted together, and weathered the hard times of life together. They shared everything they had from scraps of cloth to food from their gardens. Did they always get along or see things eye to eye? I am sure the answer is no. But they came together when they were needed. I cannot say for sure, but something in my memory knows they prayed for each other.
Through the course of this Bible study I have also thought a lot about our community and of Working Women Rooted in Faith. Our world is so very different from just 35 short years ago when I was a child chasing lightning bugs in the cool evening mountain air. It is fast paced, our calendars are full of appointments, sporting events, and endless to do lists. But if we embrace what God tells us through the Bible we realize how important community is; even in our modern times.
Proverbs 28:26 says “whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool.” God intended for us to be together; to come together in community through His name; to help each other and to share our wisdom with the younger generations just like the women in the small mountain community from my childhood. I have been so blessed through my life to have had Godly women that prayed for me; that I could cry with when I did not want anyone else to know I was hurt and women that helped me navigate the corporate world with their wisdom of having gone through the journey before me.
God was certainly guiding me all this time (even when I did not know it) and I am 100% confident he put them in my path for a reason. I will be the first to admit that I do not have all the wisdom and knowledge when it comes to having a relationship with God and walking in Faith as a Leader in the workplace – but I rely on God, my Bible, and a small group of women that I know would pick up the phone any time of day if I called them.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10.
My prayer through writing this blog is that someone out there will know they are not alone; that Lisa and I are here to pray for you as you go to work each day and to just simply be there if you need to talk. We are here to help you up! We both pray for direction and guidance each time we sit down to write and share our hearts and I truly believe that God is calling us to action – not just to write but to bring working women together. I have been so reluctant to write these words because it ultimately means a commitment to one more item on my calendar – and I have been fighting it! Ask Lisa! 🙂 But God has a way of checking us! And I can’t deny The Mission Trip he has us on!
I encourage you to think about Working Women Rooted in Faith and whether you would be interested in attending periodic Bible studies with us, to share your story, to pray, and to guide each other through God’s desire for us in the workplace which is to ultimately “bear much fruit.” We don’t know when or where – we just know God is calling us to move so we will follow. Please reach out to us at wwrf267@gmail.com and we will gladly contact you when we set a date!
And to my dearest grandmother I will never forget the feeling of holding your hand and hearing you sing Victory in Jesus. “O victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever. He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him, He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.” Yes, yes he did.
