Keeping On!

After that retreat in September 2010, I taught an eight week course using and expanding the same material for the church I was attending (Park Street Brethren Church, Ashland, Ohio). It was well received. I followed that up with another eight week study of Phillip Yancy's book, The Jesus We Never Knew. This also went very well. For the past three years I've been providing elder care for a woman with dimensia. Her husband died in Sept. 2008, and the family (9 living siblings) wanted for her to be able to stay on the family farm. She will be 89 this year. I have come to care for her and this family, and count it a privilege to serve, but I know that it won't go on forever. So I began to develop Plan B. Plan B is to add writing to my speaking/ teaching and to again seek to market my skills and my passions. This week I've begun researching what it will take to really get this going. I've started to create a brochure/flyer that will get the word out. It's all quite exciting and stretching. I'll be posting more in the coming days, to keep you updated on how things are going! Hopefully, it will all be about moving forward!

Progress!

In February of this year I sent out a few letters explaining my interest in teaching about Personality and Spirituality. I was so pleased that someone passed that information along and after a few short emails, I was scheduled to speak at a women's retreat in September. It's a start and a I am so excited about it.

In preparation for the retreat I have been reading and doing research to expand my knowledge base. I have found the following material extremely helpful: Please Understand Me (1 and 2), Knowing Me, Knowing God, Type Talk, and Corrine Ware's material on Spiritual Type.

Things are really coming together! Hopefully more opportunities will come out of this one.

Update

Unfortunately, no news isn't always good news. Last year when I created this blog, it was my hope that from it would flow opportunities to speak and teach. That has not been the case. It has been a year of working whatever jobs came my way. None of it included teaching or speaking. I continue to believe that God is not done with me, and to that end I have been doing some writing and made several contacts about writing grants.

It is my continued prayer that I will remain obedient, even in the uncertainty and waiting. If you have need of a speaker for your event I hope you will prayerfully consider me. I would love to have the opportunity to speak with your event coordinator or committee to tell them what I can bring. I do have a few tapes of my speaking that I can share, if that would be helpful.

Thank you, and many blessings.
Tina

A Dream Realized

This Speaking/Teaching Ministry draws it's title and purpose from one of the key priniciples of my life: connection. I have a Grant Writing/Funding business called Nexus Funding Solutions. I chose the name Nexus because it is primary meaning is connection. When I went looking for another synonym for connection I found the word yoke. Zugos is the word Jesus uses in Matthew 11:28-30 for the yoke he invites us to take. Being connected to Jesus is the basis for everything I am about and everything I teach.

My Purpose
As I began my ministry in the 80's, I felt that God impressed Colossians 2:2 upon my heart. Back then I was reading primarily from the NIV and in that translation the verse even starts with "My purpose is..." More recently I found the verse in Peterson's The Message where presents the verse this way: "I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God's great mystery." What a beautiful image and goal!

My Experience
I was a pastor in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Kansas for 20 years. I was a hospital and institutional chaplain. I was a family counselor. I have led workshops and seminars all across those years. I have taught Sunday School classes and seminarians. One of my favorite things to do was have the congregation try to stump the pastor. I invited them to bring an item to the service in a paper bag and I had the time it took to gather the offering to come up with a spiritual illustration. It prompted one child in the congregation to say that she thought I could even make a spiritual application out of a booger.

My Heart
Life's journey has taken turns that I never expected, but I have been the recipient of God's lavish grace, the amazing love of my husband, and the support of my many firneds. Too many things work to separate us, but God has created us to be connected. I lived a lot of years trying to earn my salvation and hide my brokenness. It was a lot of wasted energy and time. In recent years I have begun living into the fullness of Paul's message to the Corinthians:
"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” (2 Cor. 5:17-20)

My Message
I'm going to include some workshop and retreat themes, but these are just a sampling of what I can bring. I am a firm believer in three things: just as Jesus gathered up the food after feeding the multitudes, nothing is wasted in our lives; out of our mess comes our message; and out of his great love for us, his mercy and compassion, he brings beauty for ashes.

Retreat Themes and Workshops:
Growing in Grace and Knowledge: Spiritual Formation for the Commoner
Wherever I Go—There I am! Understanding Personality
Good Grief: Dealing with Grief and Loss
When Humpty Lives at Your House or What do I do with all these pieces?
All Grown Up: So what do I do with my dreams and how do I find my purpose?
Listen to Me: Connecting and Communicating
What’s Eating Me? Returning Sanity to Diet and Image
Finding Balance when it feels like it’s a balancing act
No, is not a four letter word. And neither is yes—You can set a healthy boundary
Trusting God’s Timing When the Deadlines Keep Coming
God Uses the Imperfect
A Weekend on the Mount: Sermon on the Mount Series
Joyfully Journeying through Philippians
Everyday Ephesians
Unnamed but not Unnoticed: Women Who Had an Impact in the Bible
Talking to Myself: The Benefits and Process of Journaling