Laura Jones

Dance With a Mission!

/ Jana / Leave a comment

Looking for a great night out next weekend? Join us as we Dance with a Mission!

Women Getting Real is hosting a charity dance at Absolute Ballroom to fund mission work for Beth Hungerford, Shimmi Taylor, and Laura Jones.

Beth and Shimmi are headed to Zimbabwe and Laura is pursuing further mission training in California.

For our dancing friends, this is a great extra dance for the month! For friends who are new to dancing, it will be a lot of fun and a great time to catch up! You don’t have to be a dancer to have fun! Singles and couples are welcome.

Date:
Saturday, July 9, 2011

Time:
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Location:
Absolute Ballroom
9119 Executive Park Drive
Knoxville, TN 37923

Attire:
Nice casual/dressy

Agenda:
Dancing will start at 7:00 pm and will include rumba, foxtrot, waltz, swing, cha-cha, salsa, samba, bolero, and anything else you want to dance to that music! Mid evening, we’ll have about a 10-minute break to hear from the women going, followed by more dancing. We will wrap it up about 9:00 pm.

Refreshments:
Heavy h’ordeuvres.

Cost:
Normally the cost to dance at Absolute Ballroom is $10 per person or $15 per couple. The studio has graciously waived that fee and simply let us have the studio for a flat rate so that whatever you give will be going directly towards the mission work for Beth, Shimmi, and Laura. There will be a donation box at the back along with further information about the upcoming trips if you are interested. We are asking for a minimum $10 donation, but you are welcome to give more as led.

Be sure to invite your friends! This is supposed to be a FUNdraiser. 😉

Hope to see you there!

Running Free by guest blogger Laura Jones

/ laurajones / 1 Comment

Hey chicas!  Jana and the band are recording today, so pray that they will sing strong and claim His pleasure over them as they worship and work together.

Jana asked me to post if I felt so inspired, and after her blog about Eric Liddell yesterday, I thought I’d share a recent conversation the Lord and I had about running. 

Among the things I’m trying to learn to do faithfuly is taking a walk with the Lord in the mornings. I was out with Him a month or so ago, and on this particular walk, I felt Him prompt me: Run.

I didn’t want to. Felt silly. I haven’t run since I was like, 12.

But He kept saying, “Run.” So I finally did. At least, I attempted a mini-jog.

Then He told me to speed it up. “Don’t jog. Flat out run.”

So I did.

“Don’t you feel more alive?” He asked.

“Yes, Sir, but I’m gonna die…” I huffed back.

When we got to the end of the trail, I said, “I really don’t like that, but I’m willing if You do.”

“Do you REALLY not like it?” He probed.

“Well, I just feel embarassed, and like I look silly. And I can’t do it.”

Then the Lord brought back Graham Cooke’s voice from a CD I’d listened to weeks before: “God never calls us to what is possible. He calls us to what is impossible. The only thing we can do is yelp, ‘I can’t do this!’ and He says, ‘I know.’ ”

“Ha! Very funny, Lord. So, I guess I kind of do like running. I just feel like I can’t and I don’t like that.”

“Those are two entirely different things.” He stated.

“Yeah, they are.”

So, we ran a little more. Got to the end of the street, and I saw a silver chain in the road. Immediately, my mind went to the song, “My chains fell off, my soul’s set free. My God my Savior, has ransomed me…”

“I’m just breaking your chains off and setting You free.” He said.

“Okay, Lord. Got it.” I thought back to all the old baggage He’s been helping me sort through, and the things He’s been teaching me. The running freely – the broken chain: this was a physical picture of a spiritual excercise.

I added, “But while You’re breaking those chains, could you please hold my heart gently, because it feels like my heart is what’s breaking…”

Then I remebered what Corky Shepard prophesied over me in Zimbabwe: “There are things the Lord is going to want to take off. I’m talking about attitudes and things now. And it may be hard because they’ve been there so long, they feel like they’re part of you. But He wants you to just be you and run free.” Run free. Imagine that. Nearly two months had gone by since Corky said those words, and here God had me literally running. And challenging my attidudes and fears.

In my heart, I heard the Lord saying, “I’m taking off the weight.” Spiritual weight. Physical weight. Chains be broken. Lives be healed. Hearts be opened. Christ revealed.

And my soul sang, “Lord, I wanna run…”

I really do. I want to run. Spiritually and physically. I want to be stretched. To be free. To be willing to go hard places and attempt the seemingly impossible without fear. To run to Him. To run with Him.

How about you?

You Helped Change the World

/ laurajones / Leave a comment

Sisters – Jana and her family have headed to the beach for some much needed family time after the Zimbabwe trip!  Pray for rest and refreshment for all of them. 

Jana has asked me to give you all a recap of  last night’s Zimbabwe Celebration event, welcoming four of the Women Getting Real team members back and sharing the harvest with the rest of  you who supported us stateside. The Zimbabwe trip would not have happened without you.

For myself, it was such a great reunion – so good to see the faces of the women and men who have been praying for us and encouraging us all the way to Zimbabwe and back.  As Jana shared last night, “One of the most powerful gifts to us as a team was your prayers.  It was tangible.  I could send a text calling to rally the saints and we could just feel the breath of God move among us, an ocean away.  When someone asks you to pray for a mission trip, never think that your prayers don’t matter.”

We as a Zim team want you to know that you were as much a part of this trip as we were, and we gave each person who came last night a note to remind them – and now you:

Because of God through you. . .

Our team:

  • Cried with 14 women at a Bible study
  • Challenged more than 600 students in 3 high school assemblies
  • Equipped 80+ women at a Women’s Retreat
  • Biblically trained 8 camp counselors
  • Encouraged the dreams and purity of 50+ middle school students
  • Played, prayed with, and blessed 75 children at the local orphanage
  • Washed the feet of 25 senior citizens
  • Loved on 40 + handicapped children
  • Shared testimonies with 20 women at the Women’s Tea
  • Prayed for healing at the hospital
  • Renewed and encouraged 4 ministry leaders
  • Worshiped in song and dance
  • Invested in many one on one relationships

Thank you for being part of this journey.

More God stories from Zim coming this week….

Looking For God In Zimbabwe

/ Jana / 1 Comment

Audacious title isn’t it?  But there is a reason for it. For some of us on the team, the notion of hearing from God was about as foreign as the soil we were on. It was a great joy to share and coach these folks on the closeness of God that is available to us all.  But for others of us, especially those of us on the WGR team, we had to tune our ears to hear God in such radically different surroundings. On home turf, we three, Beth, Laura and myself had grown accustomed to particular ways that God conversed with us. With all that stripped away, we each had to strip away notions and familiarities, even comfort levels to regain our intimacy with Him.

The nature was different. Instead of seeing God in gentle deer in mountainous display, we were beholding elephants in dry, desolate lands. Instead of the usual prayers for God to surprise and supply our needs we faced the complete and utter devastation of poverty and governmental corruption. Were these people praying for God’s provision? Was this His answer? Would He answer us in the middle of such great need? This whole trip, in lots of ways I will explain in coming blogs, caused me to question my compass.

If I prayed it once, I prayed it a thousand times. “Lord I feel like I’m flying blind.”  That is how it felt much of the time I was teaching, counseling, interceding.  They had so much heartbreaking need, I had so little understanding of what to offer. But God kept whispering, “I’ve got you. Just keep going.”

Then the kisses began to fall. He began to speak to us in our language, 6000 miles away from home. For me it was hearts and butterflies. Lots of butteflies, even white ones. For Laura it was rainbows. And Beth, well she has a whole new story to tell about rain and spiritual downpours. All these little love notes were out of season and unusual occurrences for the region. But not at all unusual for Our God who knew how very much we each needed to hear from Him,  to be reassured of His presence.  You know it sounds funny, but God lives in Africa too.

What you may not know is, He’s also quite the show-off for out of town guests. Seriously, it is one thing to hear from God when life is going pretty well. It is a whole other matter when you are way out of your comfort zone in every way. I am so glad we have the “God who speaks and He lives.” I am so glad He came looking for us.

Zim Prayer: June 7 – June 11

/ Lyschel / Leave a comment

Here’s what’s going on with the Zim team this week:

Monday, June 7

Sonoia Primary School

Tara speaks

“You are Special” skit

Fun songs

Chengatenai (Nursing Home)

Team sings and visits

Laura and Randy share testimonies

Good Shepherd Orphanage

Team share devotionals with the kids –

Alex and Spencer – younger boys 5-14

Randy and Tyler – older boys 15-20

Anna and Tara – girls 4-10

Jana, Beth, and Salem – girls 11-15

Lara and Laura – girls 16-23

Wednesday, June 9

Team leaves early for the Harare market

Thursday, June 10

Team flys out towards Knoxville, 12:30 PM (Zim time)

Friday, June 11

Team arrives home at 6:38 PM (Knox time)

Zim Prayer: May 31 – June 6

/ Lyschel / Leave a comment

Okay, prayer warriors!  Here are the Zim highlights for this week.

Monday May 31 – Thursday, June 3

The team will be on a houseboat in Kariba.  This will be their down time for fun, seeing wild life, and also processing what the Lord has been doing.

Friday, June 4

Team returns to Chinhoyi Friday morning

Chinhoyi Youth Meeting (Friday night)

Jana speaks

Team does skit

Spencer and Lara share testimonies

Saturday, June 5

Good Shepherd Orphanage – time with kids, hand out letters, pictures taken

Tara and Anna – leading a craft

Salem and Beth – playing games with the younger kids

Sunday, June 6

Chinhoyi High School

Tyler speaking

Team does skit

Alex and Randy share testimonies

Lomgundi College

Team shares cardboard testimonies

Jana speaks