Posted by Susan Campbell, CTR Sisterhood

We have had four great CTR Sisterhood events and are praying that our fifth and final event before summer break is one that will encourage women to reach farther in their families and communities.  Our guest speaker fits that bill perfectly!

Margo Feiseler came to mind for two reasons:  1. She came highly recommended by many people.  2. She is very involved in her community and works diligently on behalf of the poor.

Then I spoke with her, and that sealed it.

Margo is very dynamic.  She is deeply passionate about life and especially about women and their walk with Christ.  She loves to laugh and bring the JOY of Christ into daily conversations.  It just flows out of her!

I sense that our entire Sisterhood  will immediately connect with Margo and her vast life experiences. Plus, she loves our Sisterhood theme and our outreach this ministry has to offer the women of Christ The Rock.

On May 12 she’ll share how she came to know the Lord in her early 30’s and has had to learn to be content in Jesus…and she’ll motivate us to do the same.   There is Joy in this Journey of womenhood and sometimes we need the encouragement and motivation to keep walking with faith.  Margo will give us some tools to journey on!

I hope you’ll come. And I think you’ll leave the event feeling blessed and feeling prepared to bless others. Register online at christtherock.org/sisterhood.

Posted by Nancy Leschke

We have a little bit of a reputation with the women who work in the strip clubs. Most refer to us as “the church ladies.” But as they are getting to know us, we are building relationships that are allowing God to move in amazing ways.

Here are three brief stories about how us church ladies are reaching to those women who hunger for Him through a ministry called This ONE’s for the girls:

A young woman approached us recently at one of the clubs where she’d been working. She said that she started attending a church in Green Bay two months ago but felt like a hypocrite and wondered what the other people would think if they knew where she worked. She used the word “hypocrite” several times. We had the chance to share with her that we are all hypocrites; that God doesn’t view one sin as worse than another, and that’s why Jesus came in the first place! It was a privilege to be able to encourage her more, and speak Christ’s love to her. We will be looking for her at Easter, and maybe she won’t be in the business any more.

Last week, another young woman we’d met in the clubs left us a voicemail message saying she wanted to come to church at Christ The Rock. This past Sunday she came with her husband and children! Two of our team members welcomed her and sat with them to worship and hear the message, and she was eager to set up a follow-up meeting with them in the days ahead. Please pray that the sermon had an impact on them, and that they want to come back and find out more about God’s love for them.

Thirdly, we are thrilled to announce a “sister” outreach that’s starting this week in the western Wisconsin! Renee, one of our team members, has been driving from western Wisconsin these past six months. It’s a three-hour drive one way–and Renee is on a mission. Her vision is to launch an outreach similar to this One’s for the girls. Along with several women from her home church, Renee is ready to launch “Whispered Hopes,” an outreach to the women who dance in Chippewa Falls-area clubs. Their first night in ministry is tonight! Please pray that the clubs allow the team to come inside, that the women who work there feel loved and cared for, and that the team will be the face of Christ to the people they meet.

Thank you all so much for caring for women that many people judge or overlook, and especially for praying faithfully. None of this amazing news would be possible without your prayers!

Posted by Nancy Leschke

Each February for the past four years, the this One’s for the girls team has brought a reminder of God’s love to the women who work in local exotic dance clubs.

In honor of Valentine’s Day this year, we will be visiting clubs on February 10, 11, and 12. Each woman will receive a small gift of chocolate, with a gift tag telling her she is loved, and that she is precious to God.

We hope to visit six clubs, including a new club in Green Bay that we visited for the first time at Christmas. Thank you for praying for the Christmas gift nights! We had many meaningful conversations with the young women we met. The girls were surprised and delighted to be remembered with a gift, and we talked to many who were new and had never before received a gift from the team.

Your support is so important to us, and we would greatly appreciate your prayers for our Valentine nights. Thank you for caring about these dear daughters of God, and for being an essential part of sharing Christ’s love with them!

As all of us go about our Christmas preparations, the team members of this One’s for the girls have been busy planning our Christmas gift nights.  We visited one Fox Valley club already, with plans to visit three more in the Valley and one in Green Bay.

Would you please pray for us on December 10, 17 and 18 as we visit with young women who work as exotic dancers?  We deeply desire that each woman would feel God’s love for her, and that the Gospel message attached to each gift would sink deeply into each heart.

Last Wednesday, one of our teams gave gifts to eleven women.  Eight of them chose to sit down and talk.  One woman remembered us from last year, and tried to pay us.  We had the great fun of telling her it was a free gift — and she gave hugs to each one of us as she thanked us.

Another woman had been to Christ the Rock for a family funeral.  She was very touched that Pastor Bill had prayed with her loved one before she died.  She asked us several times to make sure to thank him for us, because it meant so much to her.

Another young woman shared that she had lived in literally dozens of foster homes before she was even ten years old.  She went on to share a personal story about being hurt by religious hypocrisy, and we had the chance to talk with her about how Jesus loved everyone, especially people who were not accepted by the religious people of his day.

We felt so blessed that these dear women trusted us with their stories — they have so little reason to trust anyone.  Please pray that the birth of Christ would take on new meaning for them this Christmas, and that they would feel God’s love for them.

Thank you for supporting us with your prayers!

Click here for last month’s Blog post about this One’s for the girls, or visit the toftg Web site here.

Team members assemble gifts to give at four Fox Valley clubs.

At many churches, Wednesday night means youth group and adult classes.  Those things happen at Christ The Rock too, but Wednesday night also means it’s time to reach out to a group of women who are often misunderstood, despised, or simply forgotten — women who work as exotic dancers.

For the past three years, I’ve been part of a ministry called this One’s for the girls.  We visit local exotic dance clubs to meet and connect with the women who work there.

Eight team members take turns visiting two local clubs, bringing small gifts several times a year to show the women that they are valued and important.  At Christmas and Easter, the gifts contain a Gospel message, and we expand our efforts to reach two additional clubs.  During other times of the year, we include information about ministries that fit their age and stages in life, and a message that affirms their dignity and worth in God’s eyes.

Our desire is to listen, love them, build relationships over time, help in practical ways if we can, and ultimately, to be the face of Christ for women who work in very dark places.  We hope to show and tell them how God loves and values them, and that his church loves them too.

Most of the women we talk to are young — between 18 and 30 — and about half of them are mothers.  Some of them grew up in “normal” families, while some have backgrounds that include abuse or abandonment.  What is true about all of them is this:  they are daughters of God, and he loves them dearly.

We’ve felt honored to be invited into the lives of the women we meet.  I want to share one of those stories, one that had a deep impact on me.

A young woman told us she was undergoing some tests for cancer.  We asked what day the tests would happen, and said, “We don’t know if you’re a praying person, but we are — and we will be praying for you on the day you’re having your tests.”

Her face lit up, then she hugged us and said, “I knew there was something different about you ladies!  I could tell you just had some kind of special energy about you.  I always have a good night when you’re here.”  And then she added, “Normally you wouldn’t think that religious people would set foot in a place like this.”  It pierced my heart that she would think that church people — and maybe even God himself — do not care about her.

We have been so blessed to see glimpses of the work God is doing:  a woman crying as she read our brochure, a woman who told us that our gift was the only one she received for Christmas last year.  We are looking forward to this Christmas with great anticipation.  We hope you’ll join us in praying that each gift will bring a woman one step closer to the arms of her Savior.

Find out more at www.thisonesforthegirls.org