Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome to her Place podcast. We are so excited that you are able to listen in and hear what we have to share about this ministry. We want to kick this off by explaining who we are and why we decided to start this podcast. Our hope is that with the guidance and help from the Lord, we can help create a safe place for ladies to listen in together and go through life with one another.
Okay, Liz, so now that we are officially kicking this thing off, go ahead and let's start by just introducing ourselves.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Okay, so my name is Liz Miller. I am 24 years old and I'm engaged to my best friend. My fiance and I just bought our first home and we get married in September.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: That's.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: It's crazy because it's right around the corner.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that is super, super exciting.
Fun fact is that Liz gets married the day after my five year anniversary. So I will be celebrating my anniversary at her wedding.
It's super fun.
So, yeah.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: So, Lindsay, just tell us a little bit about yourself.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: My name is Lindsay Ray. I am happily married to my very best friend, Adam. I have a wonderful step stepson who has brought my life an immense amount of joy and purpose.
We also have four dogs and.
Yeah, so this podcast is just another small way that the Lord has given me purpose outside of my home life to reach others and share what he is doing in this ministry and through my life. And one of my very favorite scriptures is one corinthians 1614. And it says, let all that you do be done in love.
And I really hope that Liz and I are able to be alot and to share God's love and his word through this podcast and just through each lady's service that's held at our church. So we're just super excited and just super grateful for this platform. And so with that being said, we're just going to dive into it of how her place started. And honestly, it started back in October when we went to Ruoc at redemption to the nation's church. And we were there with some of our staff at Crossway. We all went as kind of a group and went out there, and I'm so thankful that we did because Pastor Kevin and Devin Wallace, they had preached on basically women stepping up in your church and just finding your place as a lady and just being a leader in the church. And honestly, I remember going back to the hotel and texting Liz and we were just talking about like how powerful that service was and it truly changed our lives and it planted the biggest seed to just step up and know that there was we didn't know what the Lord had planned, but we knew that there was a divine purpose in us going to ruach and that there definitely was a seed planted there.
And just fast forwarding through October and the end of the year, in January, our pastor, Pastor Donnie, preached on a new vision and a new year and connect. And he gave us four points through that message. And it was our vision can unify believers, and it takes us being focused to hear the vision and agree to a vision. And then three and four was four. As a churchgoer, he needed his believers and his church attenders to reach the full potential of who they were and who they are becoming in Christ. And four was crossway, connect, and it was, how will you connect people? And so just through those two messages alone, I knew, like I said, I could feel the Lord just stirring in me, that there was something so powerful that was going to take place. And I wasn't really sure that I was willing at the time. And in those months, which I know sounds terrible, but sometimes, you know, when the Lord gives you a word and a vision, you're like, oh, I don't think that's my time. I don't think this. You're really not calling me Lord. Like, this isn't me, you know, but really, as you sit back and you do dive deeper into his word, and you yearn for a stronger relationship with God.
It led me to hosting a small group this past spring semester with our church. And it was a women's group that I held at my home. And honestly, it is hands down one of the best things that I ever have done, you know, for myself and for other ladies.
And that's what kind of sparked, really, like, I knew just going through that book by Jenny Allen, which was called made for this. And if you haven't read that book or you're looking for your purpose, I cannot recommend that book enough. It truly changed my life.
And I was able to just share that book with the ladies in our church. And a few of the ladies have since then found their purpose. And it was just so fun to get together and just connect and to communicate and honestly just cultivate community.
And that sparked so much because I've been going to our church since 2013, and to be honest, I never felt as like a lady that I had my place and I had purpose. I knew that the Lord was pursuing me to do other things, but I didn't really realize, like, okay, he wants you to start her place ministry, and he, you, you know, and so through all that it has honestly just taken a lot of courage just to step out and just. The Lord has given me such bold faith, and I'm so thankful for that. But I want to share these scriptures with you all. That really just is what her place is about.
And then we're just going to dive in, and I'm going to let Liz kind of talk about how we come up with the name. And so, in January, we also had a service that we called encounter, and it was basically based off acts chapter four, verse 29 through 31. But paraphrasing that scripture basically says, stir up a gift of God in us.
And I can remember going to the altar in that service and just asking God, Lord, stir up a gift of you in me, like, use me in a mighty way, you know, whatever that looks like. And he faithfully has answered that prayer. And so I'm just so incredibly thankful for that. And the last scripture that I wanted to share was one Peter three eight. And it says, finally, all of you have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, and a tender heart and a humble mind. And I get really teary eyed with that scripture, because I think, as believers and as christians, we always want to say we're the most humble, we're the most loving, we're the most tender hearted. You know, we have the most sympathy. And those were all areas that I was none of those things. And he has graciously just done a work in my life, in my heart, even in my family, and that I am able to have sympathy, and I am able to love one another the way that the Lord would choose to. And that's honestly what her place is about. It's about just loving women, going through life with them, going through the thick of it, just knowing that you're not alone, whatever you're going through, there's another lady out there that's walked it and probably has had to walk a lot longer than you have.
So, with that being said, I'm just gonna let Liz kind of share what. How the name come about, honestly?
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Yeah. So, when we talked about this, we decided on when we were gonna do it, and when I asked Lindsey when we're doing this, she said she wanted to start it off in July. And I'm like, okay, we are doing this.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: We aren't doing this.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: We're not waiting. We are doing it. So the first thing we had to do was we had to have a name for this. What are we gonna call this ministry?
And so, for me, I was sitting there in the living room, and I was trying to come up with this name that would just be, like, so catchy, grab attention, trying to make it so perfect. I'm looking up a ton of scripture.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: We both were. Honestly, we were like, what are we going to do?
[00:09:05] Speaker B: So I'm trying to pick one word out of the scripture that just will grab someone's attention, and then I'm also reading scripture that will just go down to one word. But it's kind of hard to make a scripture into one word. Yeah, but so as I'm sitting there just trying to find what we, you know, trying to figure out what we could call this, the Lord just kind of stops me in my tracks and was like, you were thinking about this way too much. And he was right. I was thinking about it way too much. And so I was like, okay, lord, well, then what is it that you want me to call this? And he just spoke and was like, well, what about her place? And I was like, okay, that is so good. It is going to be her place. And I was trying to gather my thoughts on, like, all right, so why is it going to be her place? And I wanted to hurry up and tell Lindsay and be like, look, I got a name. We're going to do this. But I needed to collect my thoughts.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: In true Liz fashion, she needed to type all the things out. Okay, let's just be honest.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: I have to write it out.
So there's just two reasons of why her place is such a good name for this. Because one reason is her place is a safe place, and we all have our safe place. And whether that be you in your car or in the shower or in the bedroom, just whatever that looks like, we all have our safe place, and.
[00:10:34] Speaker C: That safe place is for us to.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Just be ourselves and just let everything out. And for me, my safe place is a shower and the car.
But also another reason why her place is such a good name is because her place is endless. Like, like Lindsey said, we all go through different things, and we can go through them in different seasons as well, but we're all going through something, and it could just look so different with the other person next to you. Like, we're all going through, you know, that could be her place of freedom, that could be her place of anxiety, her place of depression, her place of being a widow or single or a divorce, or it's just. It could go on and on. And so her place was just so fitting, and I don't know, I just really love the name. I jumped out of that couch, and I was like, this is it.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: Yes, this is it.
But with her sharing the name and just explaining what it is. So we have really incredible ideas of services that we're going to have at our church, which is crossway Church of God in Gardelle. And so I'm just going to go over some of these, and then maybe if you do follow us on social media, on Facebook, we're on Instagram, obviously, podcasts, we're gonna always share the dates of our services through this podcast on all of our social media platforms, but we are gonna have different services. And so this first service is this Sunday, July 9, and it's called her place of hope. And we're just so excited and just honestly thrilled. We have texts all week about, like, what we feel like God's gonna do in these services. And the first service is called her place of hope. And so if you're just a lady that you just honestly feel hopeless in life right now, we just encourage you. Like, if you can't make it to service, if you. You know, you're like, okay, I'm not in the stage of my life where I can just be there on a Sunday evening, or you just don't feel comfortable being in the same room with a bunch of ladies. Reach out to Liz. Reach out to me. Like, we want to speak life to you. We want to love on you. We want to be in prayer for you.
And just know that your situation's not hopeless, whatever you're facing. God has a good plan for good things. And I have, honestly, he gave me that saying just as a reminder years ago when I was going through just difficult things myself as a lady. And then when I met Liz, I would always text her that when she was struggling with things. And he really does. He has a really good plan for good things. And I think sometimes we just lose sight of that. So, with that being said, I'm just going to close this out real quick.
In prayer. I just want. Liz and I, you know, we were talking, how do we want to end this podcast? And every time we end it, we just want to pray a covering over each listener and just let y'all know that our hearts are pure and that we do want this podcast to just touch each and every life. And we want the Lord to use us as willing vessels. It's definitely nothing that Liz and I are doing because this is so out of our comfort zones.
We're not bold. We don't like to step out. Honestly, if you ask me what my favorite thing to do is, it would be sit on the couch in my house, read a book, just do something alone.
I'm not very outgoing. I like to be adventurous sometimes, but.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Well, that's like when you said that you wanted to do this and I wanted to do it with you, I was like, okay, this sounds so great. But then it's like when we decided to do this in July, I'm like, oh goodness, we're actually doing.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Yeah, we're actually doing this.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: I gotta be out of my comfort zone.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: And it's nothing that we have actually done. It's truly, the Lord has just given us such a boldness that we just honestly went to the altar and just begged God for, you know.
And so with that being said, I'm just gonna close this out in prayer real quick. So, Lord, we just ask that you touch every single lady that is listening to this podcast right now. I ask that you would just help them to get through whatever it is that they're facing in this moment that seems so just overwhelming. Lord, I pray that you strengthen them through the valley and that you just let them know that there is a mountaintop that they will be on one day. Lord, I pray that you would just give them freedom and hope for their future. I pray blessings over them. And Lord, I pray that if they just need someone to talk to, that you give them the courage to reach out to someone, whether it be in our church or to us personally. Lord, I thank you for this platform and I thank you for what it means to me and what it means to Liz. And I pray that you would just continue to move in our lives. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
[00:15:31] Speaker C: Thank you for listening to her place podcast. Go ahead and turn on your notifications so that you won't miss out on what comes next. Feel free to share with your friends and family. If you are a lady who would like to get plugged in with our herplace ministry, reach out to either myself or Lindsay. We look forward to our next service on August 20.
