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Written by Katie Forbess, volunteer and Board President with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Missouri
As iron sharpens iron,
so one person sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17
Looking at past blogs on the IRSM website which I have written or been a part of, I see the foundation of the notes that I have been writing for this blog. It is a comforting reminder that God has been working consistently in the same ways through my commitment to Iron Rose Sister Ministries through relationships, prayer, and reliance on Him.
If you ask me how I am most committed to my Iron Rose Sisters, I will tell you it is in prayer. Why? Because all other things I do have the possibility of failure. Someone won’t like the words or scripture I share or the gift I have chosen. I will let them down with my overwhelming humanness. But through prayer, God uses my holiness to bless them. The Spirit intercedes for them as He does for me. With all the groans and lack of words, He communicates the soul's cry to the Father.
Actions are a must. Listening and following through on the Spirit’s promptings to act are essential (Called to Listen and Committed to Listen books). And the way that I know I can best help someone is to bring them to the Father in prayer.
Prayer is an awesome testimony of love. Recently, a prayer line that I am on spent the whole time praying for a fellow sister who was a caregiver. One of the most amazing things to listen to was other sisters who I know are also caregivers holding up this sister in prayer. For an hour. Prayer after prayer. Some in the form of songs, others through readings of the scripture. A few laughs and a whole lot of tears.
This also happens during the weekly team meetings of Iron Rose Sister Ministries. The meeting begins with a devotional, and prayer is always included; not a general prayer, but a prayer that inserts our lives into the lives of others and presents our hearts before the Lord, always asking in confidence, trusting He not only hears us, but He is in control.
These kinds of relationships are the foundation of IRSM and the goal to grow closer to God and one another. Through moments like these, the team is prepared to make important decisions like the very difficult one made recently to cancel a trip. The trip was planned and prayed over, the events set up, and invitations sent out. Michelle and Julia were prepped and ready. The Spirit was willing but literally, the flesh could not make it. The unity of the team and the trust on all sides that the decision was being made for God’s glory was not easy. But it worked out and the team was amazing in their response to all the things that had to be done, from the refunding of tickets to the communication with the congregations. After countless prayers and some tears, it was evident. God blessed the process.
This is only one example, and I will say with confidence that as the team and ministry grow, the stories grow, as does our faith through our time in prayer.
So, if you want to know how to be committed to your Iron Rose Sisters, my answer is prayer. If you want better relationships, pray. If you want to truly help the sister who just lost her husband, pray. Please do not hear me say that prayer is a magic incantation and that no other action is involved. At the very least God will change your heart, but it’s more likely that He will change your perspective about what action needs to be taken.
Praying always.
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Written by Sâmia Machado, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Brasilia, Brazil
We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Th 1:3 NIV)
Dear ones, the church of the Thessalonians was a model church for all times. In 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, we see the success of the gospel and the faithfulness of that church, being the fruit of Paul's work accompanied by Silas and Timothy on his second missionary journey (Ac 15:36-18.23). In these chapters, we see their choice to serve by working together to preach the gospel of Christ.
Over the last three years, I have been able to learn from the Lord the meaning of the word service. Being a servant of the Lord means standing before Jesus with the desire and willingness to genuinely serve. So, if our willpower is weak, we have to exercise it, even if our bodies and minds say they don't have the willpower.
Paul was called to be an apostle and serve the Lord Jesus, having to renounce a lifetime of Jewish customs. As a servant with no choice of where to go, facing persecution, and eventually imprisoned, he happily writes his first letter to the Thessalonians.
Sisters, my family and I have been “on rough seas” since 2021 during my third pregnancy. I was pregnant with twins and lost one of them, leading to an early rupture of the membrane protecting José, the baby I was still carrying. This situation put me in the hospital at 25 weeks pregnant. I was able to maintain the pregnancy until the thirtieth week when the amniotic fluid emptied. Unable to wait any longer, my baby had to be delivered and taken straight to the ICU. In total, I was in the hospital for two and a half months, leaving my home in the care of the Lord with the help of my beloved husband, Emilson, until we were able to go home with our José Victor. I realized how intense the last two months and six days were, when I saw our three children together after so many weeks of absence. Unfortunately, José passed away due to a respiratory syndrome, as a result of a simple cold.
For me as a mother, experiencing that moment of sudden loss made me realize that I should accept God's sovereign will. The desire to give up was intense, but what about my two children who were still with me? And my home? Being in mourning and having to return to work which involved the direct care of mothers and newborns — all of this was part of that rough sea…
Being in the desert of the ICU and seeing God bring my reinvigorated little baby out of there, then going back to the ICU for the second time and leaving without my son alive, returning without a piece of me, was the biggest battle I had to fight against my own will. I had to take care of the home, be a present mother, and start to take care of the family again with this loss. After a few months, I had to return to work assisting with breastfeeding care at the Birth Center where I have worked since then. ii. My dedication to my children, Alice and Benjamin, had to primarily be the continuation of discipling them in the Word of the Lord.
Today, two years and four months after my José Victor's departure, I am inspired by Paul's letters when analyzing the path he followed to serve the Lord. Paul wrote Thessalonians, his first letter to that church, with enthusiasm and love for service. Amid the persecution of the Christians there, he encouraged those new to the faith who, even amid difficulties, did not stop preaching the gospel. Even those who were new to the faith were active in serving the Kingdom, putting into practice the teachings learned from the missionaries.
I refer to each family as a part of the Lord's church, each one being a part of the body that, when joined together, forms the church just as Thessalonica was: an example of a healthy body. Like them, we should also be committed to the gospel of Christ both in our church and in our homes, in any situation, even if there is persecution as there was in the early church.
May we be like the Thessalonian church; active in serving, which was what distinguished it as a model church through the preaching of the gospel throughout Macedonia and Achaia (1Th 1:7-8).
…your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Th 1:3b)