Women's Ministries

 Welcome to the Women's Ministries page.

We are a group of travelers, in pursuit of a daily, devoted walk with Christ, the one who has seized us with His great affection.  We are single, married, mothers, non-mothers, daughters, sisters, young and old friends.  We hope you will join us sometime. For more info on Women's Ministries at The Village Chapel contact: TVC Women's Ministry

To join the Women's Ministry email list to receive information on events, click HERE and send a blank email to the address given.


Currently in TVC Women's Ministry:

2008 Women's Retreat - September 26-28 at Garner Creek, about 45 minutes west of Nashville.  This year's theme is "Do not fear".  Are you afraid of something?  Do you have fears about disease, terrorism, the elections, relationships, finances, personal failure, isolation, betrayal, love, loss and maybe even clowns?  Well, for some of those things, (CLOWNS), you need to just be a big girl. In most other cases, fear is sourced in our desire to be in control. But the scripture repeatedly urges us..."Do not fear".  So how do we do that?  Come away with the women of The Village Chapel as we look into what God has to say, and collect 15 assurances that will help alleviate our sometimes just inconvenient, but other times debilitating sense of fear.  Cost is $110 for a double-occupancy room and $91 for quadruple occupancy (each room has 2 double beds).  Scholarships are available.  Sign up at the info table this Sunday, or EMAIL US for more information.

 

Somali Bantu Missions Effort 

The Somali Bantu community living in Nashville are a group who have escaped the violence, famine, and civil war of their Somalia, Africa home.   Most live in significant poverty and we have an opportunity to minister to some of their most basic needs.

TVC’s missions approach is to respond to matters of justice, mercy, and evangelism.  While this particular effort will be largely mercy oriented, when suffering is relieved in the name of Christ, justice and evangelism are also a part of the experience.

Our local connection, Elaine Atchison, who is a part of the Grace Community church in Brentwood, has been involved with the community, teaching English and sharing mentoring type relationships with the women, helping them adapt to their new community. Her introduction of this community to us inspired us to find a way to respond. If you are interested in volunteering to be a “big sister” to a young woman, or teach English, or any other ongoing possibility, please contact Elaine Atchison at itslainee@gmail.com.

Thank you to all of you that have gone way above and beyond our call for donations.  We'll gather Tuesday night, August 19th at 7 pm in the Living Room to put together the items, make cards, and pray for the women.  We hope to see you and share in this time together, but if you cannot join us, please drop off your items in the Living Room before then.  It will be open 10-5 Monday and Tuesday, or you can bring your items before and after services this Sunday, August 17th.

We pray you will consider participating, and will be blessed by helping in the name of Christ, and for the glory God.

 

 

Fall Women's Bible Studies

TUESDAYS, October 14-November 18, 9:30 am in the Living Room, The Glory of God, Women's Bible Study led by Joyce Alfery,  No childcare provided.

TUESDAYS, October 14-November 18, 7 pm, in the Chapel.    No Other Gods, Women's Bible Study led by Kelly Minter,  Childcare provided (please sign up for reservation). No potluck.



Recent events in TVC Women's Ministry:

 

2007 Annual Women's Retreat: Fri-Sun October 26-28th

“Man is born broken.  He lives by mending.  The grace of God is the glue.”  
--Eugene O’Neil

I don’t know why God chooses to love broken things.  But as a self confessed broken thing, I am so glad he does.
I am one of his Broken Beloveds.

The story is that from the beginning, God has been in pursuit of his Broken Beloveds.  From the moment shalom was broken in the Garden, God set himself about his work of Grace.  The Bible, while full of amazing narrative, instructive help, and songs of deep and honest praise,
is the love story of a God who chooses broken things.

You see, He loves us.  He loves me.  He loves you. God sent his Son to repair our brokenness.  That is grace, and it is the Gospel, the gift of God.

The world runs by ungrace.  Everything depends on me, and how well I do something. I must remind us that God invites us to an entirely different economy.  Everything depends on God, and nothing on us.  All of our mending and flourishing is by the generosity of a God who intends all spiritual blessings for his Beloveds, because it is His nature, not because we have obligated Him by our service and efforts.

While we are away from home and things familiar, together we will look at stories of grace from God’s love letter to us, and I am prayerfully hopeful that we will let go of some of our performance addictions, our earning tendencies, our quiet and stealth God extortions.
I pray for us a weekend of celebration, worship, and mending.

Because God loves His Broken Beloveds.
 
 
 

 

Fall Women's Bible Study

For our Fall Women’s Bible Study we enjoyed a series entitled Five Smooth Stones: The pursuit of Godliness, from 1 Timothy 4. This passage reminded us that godliness is a response of obedience that holds promise both for the here and now and the life to come. May we long for more than merely settling for life as we pursue God and godliness with the energy and passion of true disciples.


 

Monday Morning Mom's Bible Study

Mondays in Feb/March TVC Mom's studied the book of 1st John, looking at what was important to Christ, as told by his beloved disciple John. This was a wonderful time of study, prayer and interaction.


 

Letters of Encouragement

Tuesday, February 27th, TVC women met, had dinner together, and then wrote cards of encouragement for the recovering and recuperating wounded soldiers in Bethesda Naval Hospital.  A few of our women, as well as some of our children, made the cards for us to use.


 

Salads and Study Mondays 

Mondays in March/April, TVC women gathered for Salads and Study at 7-8:30 pm in the chapel.  It was a wonderful time of eating, teaching, and small group discussion. We studied the book of James, looking at the delicate balance of faith and works, encountering trials, the pursuit of wisdom, taming the tongue, and several other themes.


 

Knitting Projects

TVC women let the stitches fly, and watched the scarves appear!  We were knitting scarves for various ministries to give away during the winter. TVC's own Patty Lane coordinated the 1000 Scarves project. The three ministries we will donated to are: African Leadership, (africanleadership.com), The Next Door, (thenextdoor.org), and The Nashville Rescue Mission, (thenashvillerescuemission.org). Baby blankets and scarves were also collected and were delivered to Sweet Sleep in Muldova (sweetsleep.org).  For further info, contact 1000scarves@gmail.com.


 

The 2006 Annual Women's retreat was wonderful...

We spent time in the Word, studying and hearing about "Beauty to Ashes" stories.   Jacob from Genesis 25:19-33:20, The Woman at the Well from John 4:4-42, and Peter from Luke 22:54-62 and John 21 were our texts.  In small groups we broke it down and got personal, and in our Silent Meditations, we read stories from those among us. Saturday afternoon we had a Bunko tournament, hiked, took walks, knitted and did yogalates.

At the Saturday night bonfire, we heard testimonies and prayerfully tossed sticks in the fire to symbolize the things that needed to be burned up in our lives.  Whether by our own foolishness, the wounds of others, or the holy fire of the Lord, we all discovered that we had ashes in our lives that needed to be transformed.

Sunday morning we had the opportunity to respond at the various stations around the room:  we rubbed ashes from the bonfire on our faces, and then cleaned them off with wipes to symbolize God's work in our lives.  We wrote prayers and praises on paper leaves and hung them on a fallen tree, along with black and white photos of each of us.  We took communion, sang, and assembled a small wall of blocks to symbolize our connectedness.  And then, we prayed that the work Christ began in our hearts would be completed by His Spirit as we left that place.

And we continue to pray that prayer.  See you there next year!

 

A few photos from 2006:


Oct. 20-22 Beauty from Ashes Women's Retreat

The retreat took place on beautiful Kentucky Lake, at Jonathan Creek retreat center, where we were reminded that God is in the loving and creative business of redeeming and re-using. And it is possible the beauty He creates may look different than we thought it would.  Isaiah 61 promises us that God’s intention is to rebuild and repair the ruined and destroyed parts of our lives.  This is not simply beauty that turns heads or photographs well, but it is a beauty of strength, and maturing faith and it offers a courageous welcome to the future.   

Our lives are consistently challenged by fires.  Sometimes they are fires of our own foolishness, sometimes they are fires set by unloving arsonists, and sometimes they are holy fires burning with the baffling flame of God’s purification, his mystifying and tear-milking will.  In any case, once the fires are lit and burn up whatever they are kindled by, they leave behind a seemingly useless pile of debris and ruin. From the cinders, the smoking ashes, the Spirit of the Lord blows on the barely glowing embers.  A tiny light can be seen, as He woos life from where there was none, flames  from what was extinguished, and indeed…beauty, from ashes.

 

Please continue to check this page for the latest happenings in The Village Chapel's Women's Ministry.

Loving you,

Kim