This is the scripture God used to call me into the ministry. However, it was years later before Roger and I began organizing Woes to Wows Ministries. In May of 1998 I quit my job at Prison Fellowship Ministries after a series of circumstances. Then, after meeting with several members of the pastoral staff at the church where we worshiped, we felt it was time to start organzing as a separate entity. God used several passages of scripture to spur us on and the one quoted above was just one of many.

Within a matter of days, God gave me, Sharon, the following thoughts concerning the ministry:

• There are people in our society whose struggles, their wounds of existence, are unbearable.
• Many, like myself, accept Christ and experience His love to a certain degree, but are unable to walk the victorious life Jesus planned for us.
• Carlyle Marney, in his book The Recovery of the Person, says, "The church is the womb within which persons happen and recognize one another. . .God has come to meet us in relation. . .redemption has come alive when persons in relation have begun to hear each other." Marney believes that it is only within the confines of God's grace and mercy that a person can find true recovery from their wounds.
• Ideally, in the church setting, a person should be able to safely experience the embrace of God's love through living representatives of Jesus Christ.
• However, we feel there is increased safety when meetings with hurting people happen away from the church because many have been wounded by the church.

In the book of Revelation, the apostle John talks about two things that have power over Satan and they are the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. When Christians are healed spiritually, emotionally, and physically from their wounds of existence, I believe God desires for them to reach out to others who are facing similar obstacles. There is little doubt in my mind that God wants all of His children to find wholeness spiritually, emotionally, and physically. I believe God is calling the laity to such a ministry. God wants us to:

• Make friendships
• Show them Jesus
• Lead them to Jesus
• Disciple them until they can walk with Him alone

The Japanese symbol for crisis has two points: problem and opportunity. Therefore, I feel when we reach out to people in their crisis we have the opportunity to show them the love of Christ. In the prison ministry I was involved with we had a saying I incorporated into my life - make a friend, be a friend, lead a friend to Jesus.

One of the great forefathers of psychology, Abraham Maslow, believed that all humans are in pursuit of human goals and needs according to a definite hierarchy: a ladder with many rungs. The lower rungs of the ladder are the fundamental drives for food, shelter, and safety from external threats. The middle rungs are the more precisely human set of needs and goals - the "higher order" needs of dignity, a sense of belonging, and love. At the summit of Maslow's ladder are the highest human aspirations: independence and excellence. He calls this state "self-actualization." Of course, we never reach the top, but the hope of attaining that goal keeps us going. As Christians that goal is to be more like our Savior and that is accomplished when we lead others to Him. We can walk with them until they can walk with Him alone. As Oswald Chambers says, "you have to be the nourishment for other people's souls until they learn to feed on God...Until others learn to draw on the life of the Lord Jesus directly, they will have to draw on His life through you."

Through discipleship and classes on their bottom-line issues, hurting people will learn how to walk with Jesus and not lean on their own understanding of life. Then, they too can turn around and do the same for another person.

Roger says, "the church has always taken the role of witnessing to the lost seriously, and that is fine as long as the person has no emotional problems. I believe we need to equip called members to reach the segments of our membership who feel disconnected, even those who have been members for a lifetime." Veteran Christians, who have survived life's battles, can be trained and placed with wounded women who:
1) were not raised in Christian homes,
2) have little understanding of God's ways, and,
3) whose wounds go deep.

• The sins of the fathers have reached a drastic dynamic
• Wounded people wound people - they need Jesus
• Wounded healers can help
• Each one can reach one

We understand that the word "dysfunctional" is used much too often. Yet, when we compare pain or dysfunctional homes in many ways we are comparing apples with oranges, and that is impossible. The sins of the fathers have been handed down in certain families in unbearable amounts of torment. Thus, although we cannot compare apples and oranges we can compare apples and we can compare pain.

A cut to the finger is painful, but in a matter of weeks the wound is healed and the scar begins to fade away. However, a knife wound to the heart takes a considerable amount of intensive care and follow-up. When the wound is healed, it leaves a scar. God taught Roger and me that these scars represent complete wholeness and purity in that area. Thus, as Isaiah wrote, our sins (or our wounds) become white as snow.

There are people in our society whose spiritual and emotional wounds are like knife wounds to their very souls. As the church, we have a responsibility to walk with them to wholeness. We believe that once healed, God wants us to remember the pain and allow Him to use our woes as wonderful opportunities for witnessing His amazing grace to others who are hurting and without hope.

• Church Members need Christ
• New Christians need a foundation
• Carnal Christians need to mature
• Mature Christians need to serve

Without a doubt we are experiencing a major revival in our nation. One of the major evidences of revival is when church members begin to recognize their lack of genuine faith in Christ. As volunteers receive training in mentoring they will also recognize that their wounds of existence need to heal and they will begin to allow the living water of God's love to flow from their minds to their hearts.

The Emergency Room
A Support Group

• God's Word is discussed
• Crisis situations are brought to light
• A forum to share
• An opportunity to heal
• Sent out to serve

Wounded people need to know Jesus cares in the midst of their crisis. They need a "Jesus with skin on" reaching out to them in a mentoring relationship with grace and accountability. People who have walked in the wake of a wounded person and have experienced healing from their wounds of existence remember the pain, but the bitterness is destroyed. With proper training and with the purpose of exalting Christ these people can walk with those who are going down the road where they have already been; equipped with knowledge of how Satan will next attack.

Even people who have not been wounded can be mentors of mercy. Although we may know Jesus personally, there is always room for better understanding of Him and as we grow in the understanding of how He ministered, we will be better equipped to love, as He loves. Each one can indeed reach one.

• Spiritual Gifts Survey
• Interviews
• Training

The spiritual gifts of discernment, encouragement, and mercy are those needed for being a mentor of hurting people. Without these elements in a mentor. s life, little healing is recognized in the life of a hurting person. Hurting people often have the innate ability to not only fool themselves, but those working with them as well. It will take a person strong in the foundational truths of God's Word, as well as these spiritual gifts to be the hand of Jesus extended.

All people interested in this ministry will need to undergo a series of interviews. This stems from the need to understand a person. s motive to serve. Often people who have not dealt with their own woes in life will try to lose themselves in the process of helping others. If this is the case, the person will do more harm than good in the life of a hurting person.

Most of the training will be in how to listen, how and when to apply God. s Word to a situation, and how to discern when a person needs referral for deeper problems or is ready to be released, and possibly even ready for training themselves.

• Member retention
• Productive membership
• Christ will be exalted
• People will grow

Divorced people are often denied the right to serve, but they can definitely serve in this ministry. However, we prefer couples mentoring, even if it is to single people. In this ministry when empathy is expressed -- people are connected. As Roger and I learned through our experience, it is not a good thing to connect two single wounded people of the opposite sex. And besides, Jesus sent people out two by two and we believe His anointing is on this number.

As people walk in the gifts God gives them, Jesus Christ becomes more real in their life and their walk begins to infect the people around them with the love of Christ. When people begin to study -- they grow. This ministry cannot be implemented without Bible Study and prayer.

• Been there, done that, now ready to serve
• God called, we are answering
• Whom He calls - He equips

Our family has definitely been in the trenches. It amazed me when my husband shared the following with a friend.

We are compelled to minister, just as Paul was compelled to preach; we miss out on His joy when we aren't ministering to someone. God has equipped us with training in lay ministry, which is wonderful, but mainly He has anointed us with a hunger for His heart, His Word, and prayer. We no longer lean on our own understanding of counseling as the world sees it, we now lean on God's love and His understanding. We trust His heart.

 

Woes to Wows Ministries