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A Crown Of Beauty Instead Of Ashes

There are some issues that aren’t bound by culture; that don’t change based on the color of your skin or the number of wrinkles that you have. These issues don’t target a gender or social standing.

Circumstances in our lives have caused belief in lies causing us to hide in fear and shame. These circumstances have led us to believe that we are unworthy, ugly, broken, unlovable or any plethora of negative feelings. Sometimes it is something that we have done, other times it is something that has been done to us.

In our culture we have idioms about the skeletons in the closet, or not airing your dirty laundry. These are spoken in the fear that if people knew the brokenness we have experienced, the dirtiness that we felt, and the struggles we are currently in the people around us would leave. Some people have even experienced that.

These are the people that my heart breaks for. These are the people that God is calling me too. Specifically the women; teenagers, mothers, widows and women with wrinkles that tell of the full life they have lived no matter the location; United States, the mountain villages of Nepal, or huts in Swaziland.

Women that need hope.

Women that need healing.

Women that need to forgive and be forgiven.

Women that need to know they are loved.

All because of the blood of Christ.

In two months I will be back in Gainesville training with a team of four other women to go and bring that message through Kingdom Journey’s, a ministry of AIM. We will visit 3 countries; the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Columbia for two months each.

Our team will go and partner with existing ministries to bring women in from the community. My team will then be hosting Beauty for Ashes retreats. We create safe places where stories can be shared, connections made, and grace given. We will invite the women to come and experience the freedom God has planned for them because in Jesus and as a part of his body, freedom is possible.

After the retreats we will do follow up ministry with the women who attended and continue to love them, share scripture with them, and pray with them. We will also train women at the ministry to continue to do this once we are gone.

You can check out these blogs from two of the women who are out on the field right now:

 

I’d like to ask you to partner with me as I take this next step. There are a couple of ways you can do this.

Please be praying. There is always a need for more discernment, and wisdom in where the Lord is leading and other situations so you can begin there. You can pray for God’s provision of finances. Pray for our team as we start to get to know each other.

Pray about being a financial supporter. I’d like to ask that you consider being a monthly donor of $25, $50, $100 or any other amount you feel led to. If you choose to donate please use this link:https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=staff&desc=Erika%20Michael&appeal_id=MICHAELERIKA

If you can’t donate personally but know someone or a church that would be interested in supporting me please pass their information along.

 

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. -Isiah 61: 1-3