The week in review

"Don't Cry Shop Girl"

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If you are like me, you know exactly who said that, who he said it to and you know where they were standing. I have watched You've Got Mail so many times that I could probably recite it line by line. It's a movie we always watch every time we flip the channel and see that it's own. I guess that's why most of my family can recite it too!

Too many times to count when one of them knows I am about to cry over something, that's what I always hear... "don't cry shop girl".

Never in a million years did I ever think that I would be exactly that - a shop girl!

I know it won't be a permanent position, but for the time being shop girl it is.

Wellspring has officially moved into the Reidville Circle Center, right down the side walk from Ice Cream and Coffee Beans. How great is that? I hadn't been there two hours today when I made my way for my first gallon of strawberry tea! We will be right next door to B & D Family Jewelers, in the old Emblad's Hallmark Store. Right now the sign over our door is from the most recent business, Palmetto Style Salon. We'll take care of that in the very near future.


The name of the store will be Wellspring Treasures. That's representative of the women that will come through the doors of the Wellspring Home. They've been tossed aside and some think they have lost their worth. But thanks be to God, through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ on the cross... they are indeed His treasure. Just like you and me!

The pics above are the before pics. It's really cute in a lot of ways. But it doesn't have that Wellspring feel yet. But is will... soon! We had a sweet friend donate the paint today. We also have some volunteer painters ready to get started.

Maybe you have some time, some muscle, or a highly creative gene that you'd like to share!

Or - maybe you have been needing to do that long over-due spring cleaning. We will be accepting donations in a few weeks.

We would love to have you join the hands on fun. Call me, or if you have already gotten in touch, I will be back in touch with you in the next few days. If you're out and about and want to stop in, call to see if we're in. You can call 809-7457.

It is an exciting time, and it is so very sweet. But we all know that this will pale in comparison to opening the Wellspring Home and loving on that first woman as she walks through the door. To steal another line from another movie... a diamond in the rough!

Remember that one from Aladdin?

So for now... no tears for this shop girl!

Here's Y(OUR) Sign

Which of the pictures best describe this weeks events?
Circle the correct answer below:

A. A sign of the times

B. A sign of things to come

C. A sign that our time has come

D. All of the above

Over the past few weeks I have been ordering some free items from Vistaprint. This week I resolved not to open a single email from them, because "free" can become quite addictive.

I did think that since we knew we would have a store at some point a few banners would be a great thing to have on hand. At some point soon that is!

We received a call from Spencer Hines yesterday saying the owners of the building had accepted our offer and wanted to know when we wanted to start our lease.

Let me catch my breath.... let me think about that for about a second...

How about September 1st, 2010?

September 1, 2010 it is!

So it seems D is the right answer... All of the above!

The location will be revealed in the next few weeks after all the motions have been made, seconded, all the papers are signed and all the dancing and praising done!

We will be opening the store with quite the collection of new wedding dresses, shoes and other formal attire. As room allows we also plan to have our re-sale section. Who knows what God has in store for us?

If you would be interested in becoming a Wellspring volunteer to help get
this part of the vision started, please email me at susan@wellspringsc.org and I'll be in touch to see how and when we can put you to work.

Speaking of work, one day last week when I picked up my Bible for my daily reading, I opened it to Psalms 90. I have been reading a Psalm a day for a while and this was my designated spot for the day. It has become my daily prayer since then.

Psalm 90:17... May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish
the work of our hand for us- yes, establish the work of our hands.

Establish HE IS!

Thank YOU Lord for Your Favor and Your hand of blessing.

Thank You for the call,

Thank YOU for the Vision,

Thank YOU for being YOU !

Imagine that!

A few weeks ago Ray began to read an ad in the classified section of the Herald Journal. It went like this... Store Equipment - 10 clothing racks, 4 cloth covered mannequins... $360.

First let me say that anytime Ray speaks up about anything that I thought he was oblivious to, I listen very intently. It so happened (God is sovereign) our board meeting was that very night. I took the paper to the meeting and presented it asking for permission to visit the store and make the purchase if the equipment was in good condition. Not being one that shops a lot in downtown Spartanburg, I wasn't familiar with many of the stores.

As it turned out, it was Events on Main, a bridal and specialty shop that was closing after 10 years. As I walked into the store, I was almost moved to tears that God would provide such a humble start to Wellspring Treasures (resale store). The racks were in great condition and very sturdy. Several of them will be used in the back of the store as donations come in, many others will be used in the front for special displays. Instead of four mannequins, we ended up with seven. One was sitting on the front of Ray's boat when I came home from Maryland!

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I did have to put a shirt on her!

When I went back after my initial visit, I took a packet of Wellspring Living SC information and gave to my new friend Betty. I was hoping that this might lead to a donation. But that was not the case. As each new item was added, we went from $360 to closer to $500. I was a little disappointed that they didn't want to donate any of the equipment.

They did however donate a few dresses, a couple of boxes of shoes, a few veils and several pairs of gloves. Did I say several? Oh, what I meant to say was there are two rooms in my house that you can barely get into! We didn't count as we brought them in. I picked up one load Monday afternoon. Sarah picked up two on Tuesday and Chase picked up the last one!

The best estimate I can come up with is ...

80-100 cocktail, mother of the bride/groom/party dresses

100 wedding dress (give or take a few)

80'ish pairs of shoes

one fax machine

two ironing boards

a box of gloves

I heard there were veils, but I cannot see them in the sea of satin, pearls and lace!

Other than the fax machine and two ironing boards, everything is brand spanking new!

So, imagine that... I was sad because I didn't get almost $500 worth of store equipment as a donation. Thank You Lord, You had a better plan. Most of the shoes sale for $90, one of the dresses had a "suggested retail price" of $2600.

I cannot wait to see the actual value of the donation.

It is, in fact, an Ephesians 3:20 blessing.
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Above and beyond, immeasurably more than what I was asking for!

And before I forget, as I walked in and out of the store, there was a beautiful black dress that I could not keep my eyes off of. I knew it was on sale and wondered who I might know that could wear it. As it turns out... me! It is what I'll be wearing to Sarah's wedding. I took Sarah back with me one day to get her opinion, after all... it is not your typical mother-of-the-bride dress.

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As I was trying it on, Penni, the owner of Events on Main walked by. She commented on how that was one of her favorites in the store. As we talked and she realized I was the one buying the store equipment, she stopped what she was doing and began telling me that her husband is a doctor and she had recently seen the Spartanburg Regional Foundation's site and saw where Wellspring was granted funding. She had googled and was going to call Atlanta until Betty and Vickie told her that we were right here.

She gave dresses to us as well as a couple of other agencies in Spartanburg.

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So... to Penni, Betty and Vickie, thank you for all the ways you have helped and blessed us as off we go into the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace and provision!

Too Funny

If I had only known how this story would have turned out, I would have taken pictures along the way. I bet no one saw this coming.

So.... one of our neighbors has a hedge that is some sort of spruce (maybe). Over the years since Ray and I have lived in the neighborhood, there has at times been some sort of Dr. Seuss tree growing out of the middle of the hedge nearest the road. When we first noticed it, it was just a tender shoot of a branch with a couple of leaves right above the top of the shrub.

The keeper of the hedge would periodically prune it, which I can only guess meant he just trimmed it off even with the shrub. I guess for at least the last year it has been allowed to grow.

Ray and I have had more than one discussion on the subject as we would pass by wondering how this would end.

It must have been about two weeks ago when I first saw the answer to all of our pondering. It was a good thing I was driving the neighborhood speed limit, because I might have wrecked. I did speed up a little after I saw it. I couldn't get home fast enough to see if Ray had noticed it too.

Of course he had. How could he not?

I would think that it started out a lot like this little oak, that is one of about a hundred that we have already pulled up this spring.






And I guess they just decided it was easier to give in than to keep pruning away.
This is what they have ended up with...





You can see the tree at the mailboxes. The trunk isn't that big yet, but look at all the branches and leaves. But that's not the only thing...






They have completely taken out the hedge that the tree was growing in. Which led to pruning all the hedges with a brand new summer doo. Added a truck load or two of mulch, pavers, a flower bed, and a flower pot.


So that's what sparked this thought. It reminded me of a sermon that I heard Alistaire Walker preach a long time ago. Pruning doesn't always get it, sometimes you have to get to the very root of a situation. Aren't we too many times like my neighbors? We go to extraordinary lengths to accommodate our sin, when if we would go to the root of our problems and address them there, they would be over and done.


If you read my blog a while back about that big old ugly sin in my life, you'll remember I thought it was all about me needing the money more than God. Truth was, the root of the problem didn't have anything to do with the money. It was an issue of pride.


Moral of this story.... if you have something growing in your yard and you don't think you want it there - better pull it out by the roots today so you won't be paying out the wazoo to make it look all pretty and nice, like it was what you had in mind all along.
And, if you have a little habit that has not taken deep roots, better yank that too. That kind of paying out the wazoo is twice as hard as the other.

Happy weeding, pruning and the like!

And, if B & J read this, please don't be offended. The finished product looks great. It's just been a curious thing to watch as we drive by each day.

Mountains, Dancing, Donkeys and Such

Notice that was dancing - comma - donkeys... not dancing donkeys!

You may be familiar with the New Testament Scripture in which we are told… “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Today as I sat in the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Outpatient Cafeteria area, I realized that the mountain that needed to be moved was not necessarily the mountain in front of me, rather it was the mountain in me. When God first called me to this ministry I felt so unskilled and equipped for the call. The easy thing would have been to laugh and say un-uh God, I can’t do that. Being one who loves a challenge and an opportunity to walk hand-in-hand with the Lord, I said “yes”. The truth is, I wasn’t skilled or equipped, but God didn’t let me stay that way.

What He began doing in me has been built one step at a time.

Sharing the story one person then one church at a time.

I will be brutally honest here and let you know that when God called me, one of the biggest hang ups I had was the fact that I don’t have a college degree. I did get a ticket at USCU once for parking in the wrong spot, and I did raise a college graduate. A simple high school diploma is the only thing I have to offer. I felt like it wasn’t enough. But there we (Madonna and I) sat today; blown away by the skill and equipping given through the grace of an able God. We were there to receive a check awarded to Wellspring Living SC from the kind and generous folks from the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Foundation. As I looked around the room it was very humbling to see our “peers” from other places around Spartanburg and the Foundation Board as well. I realized God had used this plain ol’ girl from Greer and given her an up-close and personal look from the top of the mountain. I once heard Beth Moore say…”if God doesn’t move the mountain, then after you’ve climbed to the top of it… dance”.

Thank You Father for the day You asked me to join you in this mountain climb of dance that we call life, and we call ministry. My motto (stolen from Allen Cantrell) is “any old donkey will do”. And thank you for asking this donkey for the dance of a life-time.

It was a grand view indeed. It is a grand dance indeed. Proof once again that God doesn’t always call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Soooooo…. If you have heard a voice call out to you and say… “would you care to dance?” So what if you have two left feet and no rhythm. He has all the rhythm that you need and will lead and guide every step of the way.

Wellspring Living SC received funding from the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Foundation that will be used for fitness equipment, art therapy supplies and contractual counseling services as we serve women through the Wellspring Living SC Home.
We are so excited that the Foundation Board felt that we were at a place worthy of their trust and expertise. We are honored and thankful for their funding and pray that this is the first of many opportunities to come.

Oh listen, I think the music is about to start. Gotta’ go dust off the dancing/mountain climbing shoes!

Coming Out & Going Public

One of the terms Hub (pastor at Milestones) uses when people cross the line of faith is to encourage them to go public with their decision. One way they can do that is through baptism.
Well I have already been baptized twice, and desperately wanted to be a third time while I was in Ecuador a few years back. The waters proved to be too deep, too fast and way too cold for that to come to pass. I probably would have been swept down stream and could at this point still be MIA.

I have known for a few weeks now that I was about to experience a milestone in my personal life, as Milestones Church experiences one of its own. On Sunday, May 23rd, I will be one of twenty-something people being ordained as the first group of deacons in our church.

A little history... Milestones (formerly known as Spartanburg Community Church) has existed for thirteen years and from the beginning has been lead by a group of Elders. That is one of the most refreshing things I have encountered in our time there. No committees, no voting.... no issues! The Elders are the leaders and decision making group. This soon to be ordained group are simply servants to the families that are assigned to us. We won't have to worry about policies, procedures, hiring, firing or anything of the sort. I think there are nine women, we are so excited to be serving the single moms and single women in our congregation.

I loved it when Hub preached about the qualifications and talked about how the elders had reached this decision, and shared about this brave step of having women deacons. We will not be known as deaconesses, because that is not a term you see in scripture. He also gave the example of Phoebe from Romans 16:1. She was cited as being a servant of the church.

I have been sort of quiet about telling people about this next step. Mostly because I did not want to seem like I was bragging. Partly because I know that some churches have such strong opinions about deacons in general. Some don't allow divorced men, others do. Some churches already have women deacons, some have women pastors.

One night at one of Sarah's ballgames, Gretchen just out of the blue said "have I told you the subject of my next paper?" She had not, and when she said it was on Women Deacons... I almost passed out. I then asked her if I had shared anything about women deacons lately. I had not. As I shared with her all that I shared above, she concurred that what our Elders had concluded was right in line with her research on the subject.
Isn't that just like Jesus to give sweet confirmation in a time and place to be least expected?

So, on the eve of my ordination, I have decided that I too would go public. I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to know and serve the six women and their families that have been assigned to me.

Please be in prayer for me and my counterparts as we gather tomorrow evening for a milestone at Milestones!

P.S. . . . I could not resist the song! Hope it doesn't offend~