THE VERY FIRST NEWSLETTER
November 6, 2007
Welcome, Sisters! We're a couple of southern girls from the middle of nowhere who would like to bring women together in a new way. This is a copy tof he very first PMS Newsletter. It was sent to about 10 friends here in Louisiana. Hopefully, this will give you a pretty good idea of what we're trying to accomplish with this outreach. And if you like what you see, jump right in! This is YOUR website, so send us your inspirations, ideas, and stories. Take a few minutes to see what we're about. Enjoy!
(Can't stand the clapping lady??? My husband says he can't read because she's distracting him!!! I think she's cute, but I get his point. She won't be here forever!)
UPDATE: it's Jan 1, 2013, and the clapping lady HAS been here forever! I created this site back in 2007. :)
WELCOME TO THE PMS CLUB! Yes, I said PMS. It's because we're women, and we need each other, especially when we have problems men and kids just don't understand. But more importantly, we have hearts for Prayer and Ministry, and we're Sisters in Christ. . . The Prayer and Ministry Sisters Club! This is our first newsletter; it's very preliminary; the format and focus will change as our club evolves. Our main topics will include prayer requests from our members and ministry projects as God reveals them to us. These are not necessarily church projects, although your churches are invited to get involved with anything you feel led to share with them. Or you can share your church projects with us. We will also use this as a forum for helping with practical concerns (what comes to mind for me is my lack of housekeeping habits!, well, good ones, anyway!), where we can say, "Hey, how do you all handle this problem. . .?" and we'll all share our best solutions. Family, home, work, organization, finances, the best products to use, beauty routines, PMS problems!!!! You know, all the things we're concerned with on a daily basis; we'll share books, websites, magazine articles, recipes, etc. Membership is voluntary; just email if you want to be on the list. Eventually, with God's blessing, there will be a paper version for those withouth internet access. You are welcome to print this and share it with any women who are interested. We may have meetings, too! Yay, coffee and snacks and PMS sisters!
Some of you may have noticed than when God gives you an idea for ministry, it's sometimes hard to get your church on board. Or maybe you don't feel comfortable making suggestions in church. Or maybe you don't participate in a ministry-minded church. I want you to know that if you've ever read an article, or seen a tv program, or heard of someone in need, and you felt a burden, or if you've ever said to yourself "hey, if only 10 people would give 10 dollars 10 times, that would be a thousand dollars and we could help with that problem!" (this from my 12-year old Ben), then YOU HAVE HAD A MESSAGE FROM GOD! Any chance to bless others is a chance to obey and serve the Lord. We're here to support one another in these efforts! It doesn't have to be a "missionary" or "religious" type effort; anything to help anybody is an opportunity to spread God's love!
I believe that EVERY idea from EVERY fellow Christian is worthy of support. We should all trust in one another's vision. As long as an idea is biblical, and comes from your heart, then you deserve a chance to see it through. Whether it be prayer, outreach, gifts, monetary help for those in need, missions support, ministry projects for our children to participate in, NO IDEA IS A BAD IDEA. God speaks to all of us. When something is on your heart, that is God speaking to you. We'll start small, but if you've studied Experiencing God, you know that nothing is too big for God. We don't all feel equally strongly about all projects, but hopefully we'll be able to find compatible ministry partners within our ranks! So let's pray for one another; and let's work together for God. Please send me your prayer requests and ministry ideas!
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY Here is our first ministry project; participation is, of course, voluntary. Hannah and I were deeply touched by a fact we learned in our Sunday School Class: every 8 seconds, a child dies from drinking impure water. I sensed an opportunity to teach her that when we are presented with an opportunity to help or serve, we should just jump right in! So we've asked our church to donate the children's Sunday School offerings, and the morning service offering (except tithes) to a fund that provides water filter systems in places where missionaries and their families are working. This benefits the people who live in those areas; they also have access to the clean water. It's called PURE WATER, PURE LOVE, and it's administered by the Southern Baptist Convention WMU. We're also gathering spare change. If you'd like more information, contact me; I can direct you to the website, or you can join our effort. Here are my suggestions if you'd like to help:
1. Ask your church to donate the children's Sunday School offerings, if they aren't already designated. We've decorated a bucket to hold the money. Let's make it fun and get those kids involved early!
2. Collect spare change at home; and ask others to do so; you can even supply them with a container and ask them to bring it to you when it's full. I'll be taking our change to one of those machines that counts it. Check out Coinstar online to find a machine near you.
3. Ask your church for a love offering to contribute to this fund.
4. Donate money you save by using coupons (whoa, that's a good one; I just thought of it)!
5. When your children get paid for chores, ask them to donate all or part of the money. Or let them have a yard sale (this benefits YOU; they'll have to clean out their toyboxes!) You can also participate in a yard sale (we all need to declutter. . . I'll share more about this in the mundane daily drudgery section haha!).
These are just a few ideas. . . oh, yeah, Ben's 10 dollar idea: If 10 people (or 10 churches) would give 10 dollars 10 times, you'd have a thousand dollars!!!! Pledge yourself to $10 a week (or 5 or 2, whatever you can afford) and ask your church or 10 friends to do the same. . . math is cool when you use it this way!
I'll let you know when I get ready to send money to PURE WATER, PURE LOVE. If you feel led to participate in this ministry, or if you'd like more information, please email, and feel free to invite your church to participate!
MUNDANE DAILY DRUDGERY also known as Blessing your Home and Family!!!! You can rest assured that when I offer housekeeping hints; they don't come from me. . . I have zero good housekeeping habits! I'll be sharing information from the FlyLady (www.flylady.net); she helps me stay afloat with routines and habits (when I choose to do them). She wants us to "fly" as we bless our families with a happy home, but mostly I just "flutter". I'll also share hints from other PMS sisters. First of all, this is the last time we'll call it Mundane Daily Drudgery! How we look at our "homework" (it's not just a house; it's our home. . . it deserves a little effort. Ooooh, that was good and it was from ME, not Flylady!) Anyway, our attitude about our homework is going to greatly affect our ability to get it done. That's lesson number one. Let's practice "blessing our homes", rather than doing housework!
You may be one of those special people (why, no, I'm not being sarcastic haha) who gets your homework done every week and you may think I'm silly for needing gimmicks to get mine done. Well, good for you. I truly wish I was like that, but, let's face it: I NEED GIMMICKS! If you don't, then you can just read this section as humor and laugh while you clean your house with a toothbrush! (just kidding, you all know I love you! I make fun of you because you're better than me!!!! It makes me feel big. hhhmmmm life lesson? How many of us do that?). If you like gimmicks, then here's today's: The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home (it's also gross to cook and eat in a dirty kitchen!).
Flylady divides the home into zones, and this week's zone is the kitchen. The first habit she wants us to develop is keeping our kitchen sink shiny, and since this week's zone is the kitchen, we can jump into two of her concepts right away. So focus this week on keeping the sink shiny. Yes, I know you have to do the dishes to do this! But we're keeping our attitude positive. . . we're not washing dishes, we're shining our sinks! In order to get my sink shiny, I have to load the dishes into the dishwasher. Unfortunately, first I have to UNLOAD the darned thing! I can't tell you how much I dislike doing that. Well, guess what. . .it only takes about 2 minutes! Good grief, I'm grouching about 2 minutes of unloading dishes that got magically washed for me???? Let's count our blessings instead of complaining about them. Set your timer and get that thing unloaded!
Here are my gimmicks for this bit of drudgery, oops, I mean blesssing! When the dishwasher is full, it's my mortal enemy. It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It's a horrible monster just waiting to torture me! So, when the sun is shining in my kitchen window (8:30 and 10:30 a.m. now that time has changed), I get in there and sing a behind-kicking song like "Another one Bites the Dust" and get that monster unloaded in about 2 minutes! And I enjoy the sunny window. When I'm finished, the monster has transformed into my special friend, ready to magically wash dishes for me! I can load it throughout the day, keeping my pretty new sink bright and shiny all day long! I run the dishwasher at night.
What I never understood before was that when you can make a chore (I mean blessing!) into a habit, then YOU ALMOST WON'T NOTICE YOU'RE DOING IT!!! Duh, isn't that what a habit is. . . like biting your nails or picking your nose (you know who you are) or twirling your hair, or whatever. You don't notice you're doing it. You just do it absentmindedly. Nobody ever told me that would happen with my homework. I thought it would be torture every day for the rest of my life! It takes a month to make a habit. I'm ashamed to say it, since I'm, uhm, 29 years old (hush, girls!) but I've finally made "shining my kitchen sink" a habit! (I already keep toilets clean; for some reason I don't mind doing them. . . maybe because a clean toilet is so much nicer to see than a dirty one!).
I've been doing my dishes regularly for about a month, and now I almost don't mind it at all. The benefits far outweigh the work involved. I know, special people, I should have learned that years ago. My point is, we must develop habits, and if we have a positive attitude, we'll be able to bless our homes, our families, and ourselves! Oh, yeah, about that DECLUTTERING. . .that means getting stuff out of rooms in which it doesn't belong. Set your timer for 15 minutes (or 10 or 5) and gather items from the kitchen (this week) and take them to their proper places. If it's trash, THROW IT AWAY! If it needs filing, FILE IT! If you don't use it regularly, or if you don't love it, GET RID OF IT. Bless someone else by taking it to the Goodwill or Mt. Grace. Put a box somewhere and toss give-away stuff into it. Do this for a few minutes each day, and your house will start to magically clean itself. I can see how this is true, but have yet to prove it in my home! The decluttering habit is one I need to be working on.
Now go shine your sink! or clean your toilet, whichever needs it worse! Declutter in your kitchen for 5 minutes! Create a new habit for blessing your home! For more help from FlyLady see www.flylady.net or email me. She will send you daily reminders. It's cool.
BLESS YOUR BODY While we're at it, let's bless our bodies and share health tips. Drink some water every day! Better yet, drink ONLY water on weekdays, and treat yourself to a little something yummy (low in sugar, of course) on the weekend. Make it a habit!
OUT OF THE MOUTH OF. . . Send me your funny or inspiring stories about your kids. Robin's boy David thought you could get sick from fleas. . . because he was going to be getting a FLEA SHOT! She tells it much funnier than I do. So tell me what your funny kids, husbands, or pets did. We'll share your laughter!
Boy, what a long first newsletter!
Welcome to the PMS Club!
Say your Prayers (and send your prayer requests)!
Read your Bible (and share what you've learned!)
Bless your Home (and tell me how you did it!)
Share your Blessings (with those who need your help and with all your PMS sisters!)
Love to you all, Nancy