Good morning! Welcome to my blog! It is a beautiful April morning here in Erie, PA. My name is Jeanette Paradis and perhaps like you, I wear a few different hats in life these days! One of them is serving as the Team Leader for Women's Ministry at my church. I really appreciate our church and love the people there and although my life is busy even apart from this role, I am thankful to be able to do it. May will mark the completion of the first year of my three year term. It has been a good year! I am SO THANKFUL for my team and our ministry leaders. There are seven women on our Alliance Women planning team who I work with regularly plus our staff pastor who oversees Adult Discipleship at our church. I am thankful for the field leaders of our team - they lead our two daytime Bible study groups, two daytime groups for moms and a missions group. We will be adding a crafting group which will make practical items to benefit those in need. Our Alliance Women team itself has stepped up and served as the leadership for the things that are new to us this year - our monthly Friday Night Cafe, an evening Bible study which began this month, plus a Mother Daughter Brunch coming up in two weeks. The long-standing and much celebrated "Holiday Blessings" event takes place each November and some of our team headed up that large event while also putting together committees.
So, why?? Why did I take on all of this when I already have "enough" (more than enough!?!) other things to do in my life? Friendship is one of my most treasured things in life. I LOVE seeing connections created amongst a group of women. My relationship with Christ is so important to me and being able to share my faith and helping others to grow in theirs is of great value. It grabs at my heart to think of women feeling lonely in relationships or empty in their faith/purpose in everyday experiences. There is a verse that says "to whom much has been given, much is required." I feel as though I have been given so much in these areas and it is natural to serve in ways that help in creating faith and friendship opportunities for others. Life is tricky - especially when we try to go it alone!
Our Alliance Women team meets monthly and at our March 5th planning meeting we were talking about "what to do" for our April and May Friday Night Cafe. One of the team had suggested doing a creative painting event like we have seen friends doing around town with the local "Cocktails and Color" which is so popular. Since our Friday Night Cafe has a coffee theme and we meet at our church, we decided on "Coffee and Color". I remembered a mom named Colleen Welka whom I knew from our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) days and how I have seen her on FB in connection with these events. So I contacted her that night and asked if she could do this for us - perhaps in April or May on our monthly 3rd Friday get-together? Thankfully Colleen was free for April 17th and we quickly put the wheels in motion to figure out logistics with the church (our usual meeting space recently got new carpet - should we really paint in there??) and also to begin announcing this and how it would all work. One member of our team works on our graphic materials and she put together the image above.
We were ready to go but how many would attend?? This type of event was a first for us! The cost would be $25 per person, to cover the materials and time of the artist and two assistants from the artERIEbarn. Registration and advance payment was necessary. All said and done, we wound up with 34 women and I was very happy with that turnout! Colleen and I have been working together along the way with the details and we met up at the church yesterday for her to begin the extensive set-up required to make this the wonderful success that it was! We wound up doing everything down in the main hallway of the church foyer area. The custodial staff set us up with drop cloths as an extra protection for the tile floors. We used a total of 11 (8 foot) tables for our painters and supplies. Colleen brought ALL of the supplies from the artERIEbarn.
Friday Night Cafe takes place from 7-9 PM on the 3rd Friday of each month. This event fit nicely into that space. Our painters began close to 7 PM and guess what?? EVERYONE was there! Wow! That does not often happen when pre-planning an event with 34 people. We grabbed some coffee and began our projects.
I have to say that this was a very pampering experience! Our two assistants were busy bees and kept moving around the space in order to constantly make sure that each of us had exactly what we needed. Paula was our artist instructor and she is pictured above, next to the piece that she was painting as part of the demonstration for us. Paula was absolutely wonderful with just the right tone, tips, encouragement and direction/inspiration for something like this! Our Coffee and Color was the first time that the majority of us have ever done anything like this and it went VERY well for us! I so enjoyed hearing the conversation and chatter around the room.
Looking at this photo, I see more than a bunch of happy women displaying their completed projects... this is the garden of life. Each woman is beautiful in who she has been uniquely created to be. When I look back on this first year of leading women's ministry, this photo will come to mind. I am LOVING our 6 week Bible Study group that I am in the middle of leading right now. When I look around that room at the tables of women, I will think of this photo as well. We represent a variety of age brackets, backgrounds and everyday routines. When I came into this role, my vision for this first year was to gather the women together - we had quite a few groups already but they were somewhat niche and I wanted to put on some events and do some new things that would bring together a variety of people. That has happened through Friday Night Cafe and our evening Bible study group. Sometimes when we are in the midst of all of the "doing", it is hard to step back and see the bigger picture of it all. No matter where we are today and how our flower grows, the idea is to BLOOM! Be you and do your best and soak up the sun, hold steady in the rain and make the most of today. Open your heart to the Lord and His purposes in your life. This is why I serve in women's ministry.
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