I sat at the table this morning looking around at 13 beautiful women all very different, but all needing a fresh encounter with God's love.  In our midst is a wife being abused by her husband, a mother who often goes without eating so that she is able to feed her children, a college student whose father's recent death has left a void that she is attempting to fill through relationships with men, a fourteen year old who has always been a tomboy and now wants to be more feminine, but she doesn't know how to make that transition. They are all incredibly beautiful and strong women, but each of them has been hurt deeply. For many of these women, this is the first safe place that they have found to share their hurts, to share the desires of their hearts, and to find restoration of their identity as women.

    We are meeting each Friday morning for a book study based on John & Stasi Eldredge's book Captivating. This book

delves into issues of women's self-worth, identity in Christ, and role within God's Kingdom. I know that this book brought healing to my life personally when I read it in college with my friend Sarah. We were so fortunate to have a church in the States who donated several copies of the book in Spanish. 

    These beautiful women are beginning to risk opening their hearts, bringing down some of the walls that they have constructed to protect themselves, and as those walls come down they are encountering God's love in the places where they are most hurt. It has been a beautiful time together and I know the Lord wants to bring so much more redemption to the hearts of these women.

    Pray for honest and open communication within our group. Pray that the Holy Spirit will open places in these ladies'

hearts (and ours) that have been closed off. Pray for redemption, healing, and wholeness.

    "They will rebuild the ancient ruins

       and restore the places long devastated" Isaiah 61:4a

    This verse is my prayer for these women. I pray that the Lord will restore the places in their hearts and their lives that have long been devastated. Please join me in interceding for them.