We Love Our Widows
We hear the love and heart of God when He speaks of widows in the church and how we are to care for them. We see in Acts 6 that the very first ministry developed in the early church was to widows. The early church was simple in its approach with very few programs. There was worship, the breaking of bread at the Lord’s table, prayer, teaching of sound doctrine, and sharing of the good news to a lost world. The first ministry program we see was for widows.
One of the ways we honor our widows here at Christ’s Church is our Honored Senior Women’s Luncheon. We had the privilege to honor, serve, and love these women this past Tuesday morning. A beautiful meal, worship, testimonies, and a message were part of the day. A highlight for us was when our widows were able to share about God’s faithfulness to them through the years, but especially during this past year of COVID-19. How blessed we were to hear that in spite of isolation, these faithful women clung to the promises of the Word of God as they have for so many years. We heard so many beautiful testimonies, including our dear Marie Watt who shared about over 74 consecutive years of reading through the Bible in a year. Although our event was to encourage and love our widows, we left blessed and encouraged by them. We were sad that our dear servant Lorraine Clawiter could not be with us this year, but are rejoicing that she is now at home with the Lord. We will also miss our precious Senior women who went to be with Jesus this past year including Sandie Lindberg, Janet Adkins, Betty Webb, and Adell Slattery.
Another highlight of the day was the opportunity to honor an amazing woman here at Christ’s Church. Anna Elzinga was recognized on Tuesday for her many years of ministering to our precious Senior women and for the vision and passion she has had for this event. A faithful team stepped in this year to carry on Anna’s vision while she is addressing health concerns. Please join us in thanking Anna, and we know she would appreciate your prayers. I know the greatest blessing to Anna would be to know that our church family joined together to see how we could continue to love and care for our honored Senior women. We look forward, Lord willing, to many more years of leadership and vision from Anna in the time to come.
From Pastor John MacArthur…
“You will remember, I know, that Jesus on the cross only spoke directly to two people. One was a dying, wretched, sinful, vile criminal that He gathered into His arms in the grace of forgiveness, and the other was to John and to Mary. And what He did was commit His widowed mother into the care of His beloved disciple because He knew that a woman should not be out from under the protection of a man, and Joseph was dead long before the cross, and now Jesus, who was the unique protector of His own mother, was dying and He puts Mary into the care of John.”
May we look for opportunities in the days ahead, especially now in these difficult days, to care for these precious women and to love them with the heart that Jesus has.
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.” James 1:27