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CarelessI haven’t cleaned the cellar,I forgot to sweep the stairThere’s a button off my jacketmy blue jeans have a tear.There’s an old, arthritic ladywhom I should uphold in prayer.But I’m sitting in the moonlight,the moonlight, the moonlight,adoring You by moonlightAs if I had no care.4/16/79Elizabeth RooneyElizabeth Rooney was a Wisconsin poet hailing from Blue Mounds. She was also a pray-er, servant, and lover of Jesus. This poem appeared in a collection called All Miracle Series…Morning song, Packages, Storing september, and Gift-Wrapped. My friend Ellen, a gifted, brilliant, wildly funny, beautiful woman, introduced me to Elizabeth Rooney. Now, I introduce her to…

Dear Sisters, This song, by Bruce Cockburn, a musician, song writer, and Christian, has been tugging on my heart.ARTIST: Bruce CockburnTITLE: Lovers in a Dangerous Time Don’t the hours grow shorter as the days go byYou never get to stop and open your eyesOne day you’re waiting for the sky to fallAnd next you’re dazzled by the beauty of it allWhen you’re lovers in a dangerous time Lovers in a dangerous time These fragile bodies of touch and tasteThis vibrant skin this hair like laceSpirits open to the thrust of graceNever a breath you can afford to waste {Refrain}When you’re lovers in a…

When is the last time you went to your church’s web site? This week? Last month? Last YEAR?Most people have Internet access at work or at home now. Wireless access is now spreading throughout Madison. The web has even been called the number one media source. The web isn’t going anywhere, it’s here to stay. So is your church using it as much as they should?What can a church web site do? Besides just giving information for people interested in attending, it can do quite a bit. It can list upcoming events, small group meetings, sermon topics, prayer requests, study…

Dear sisters,Last year I attended a training seminar in Michigan called SALTS – Survivors of Abuse Leadership Training Seminar. I’m writing to invite some other women – and men, too – to consider attending this seminarSponsored by Open Hearts Ministry, this seminar offers skills and expertise to people interested in learning to facilitate healing and recovery groups for abuse survivors. Across the country, the groups go by different names – Grace Groups, Beauty for Ashes, Abuse Recovery Support Groups – but their purpose and approach is the same.Although the focus is on sexual abuse survivors, SALTS – and the group healing process…

Dear sisters,A friend once said a new word – God-incidence. Not a chance occurrence. Not “good luck” or even a random act of beauty (and I love random acts of beauty). But one of those God-acts that catches us by surprise. Something we see His hand all over – but usually after the fact.I had a God-incidence recently. Someone from Care Net (a ministry to people seeking healing from abortion experiences) called my church’s office looking for help last fall. Care Net runs a periodic bible study called Forgiven and Set Free (tuck that bit of information away). At the…

Dear sisters, It’s Saturday. The farmers’ market in Madison is in full swing. A strange-but-true experience (but the morning buns are still amazing – and probably 600 calories each. how many times do you have to walk around the square to burn off one morning bun???). The farmer’s market is a foray into a unique, though sometimes foreign, land.I see women pushing strollers from stall to stall wearing "Pro-Child – Pro-Choice" t-shirts.My heart aches when I see young women seeking signatures for "reproductive rights." I love these girls. I want them to come to Jesus and find life. I know…

Sisters, I just learned that a new resource has been published for people using theophostic prayer in healing prayer ministry. Fr. Bob Sears and another Catholic priest from north Dakota have authored a Çatholic’s guide to Theophostic Ministry.For any Catholic sisters involved in healing prayer ministry, this is worth having and using. Protestants (and many Catholics) among our community of women may not know that inner healing prayer ministry was a non-issue back in the 1970s – except for some visionary Catholics and a few Pentecostals who had never stopped. Catholics like Francis and Judith MacNutt, the Linn brothers started writing about…

Sisters, In order for summer to come, we have to live through rain, tornados, grey days, and high school graduation parties. Some of you will spend $300 on food for herds of kids you’ve never met who will troop through your back yard, inhale everything edible, and leave for the next party. Your adult friends, O Faithful Ones, will stay to help you clean up and haul the refuse to the curb. (Remember, you did the same for them when their kids graduated….it’s one of those rubber-meets-the-road-community kind of things.)Some of you will spend hours picking up branches in your…

Dear Sisters,My daughter is in grad school at Berkeley, California. She said this past weekend San Francisco hosted an annual tradition – part run, part walk, part city-wide block party. It’s called the Bay to Beach or something like that.Evidently it’s like a huge pot luck and costume party with a bit of a 5K tossed in. Runners and walkers start at the bay and cross the city, ending up at the ocean side a few miles away. People dress and run or walk in wild costumes. It’s a lot of fun.Some time ago, a few folks decided to dress…

Welcome to Madison Christian Women. Let me introduce myself.I am part of Faith Community Bible Church, a Body and building located between campus and the Triangle neighborhood in Madison. Our church is called to prayer as a focus for ministry.I’m involved with prayer ministry for inner healing and freedom, teaching, and ministry to women in areas of healing, sexual abuse, and emotional wholeness. I’m mom to three adult daughters and work as a writer and professional storyteller.I put this blog together because I’d been thinking that the Body of Christ in Madison really needed more connection. I thought about a monthly…