May 13, 2010
Helping You Find Your True Beauty!
May 13, 2010
A Peek Inside Today's Issue...
- Run With Endurance
- Supporting Each Other
- Stories of Hope
- New Audio and Video Podcasts
- The Online Ministry Continues to Grow!
I am so thankful for each one of you! God has connected us for a reason and my prayer is that this ministry continues to be an encouragement and a blessing in your life.
1. Run With Endurance the Race Set Before You
Never say never, right? Well, at one time I said I would never run a marathon. I felt like jogging a couple miles here and there was sufficient for me to stay in shape. However, as my husband CJ has gotten back into running the last couple of years, I began to think, "Maybe I can run a half marathon." I thought, "If CJ can run marathons and ultra-marathons, maybe just maybe, I could actually run and finish a half marathon."
I started running consistently again last fall, but my longest run was only 4 miles. And so, in January of this year, CJ finally convinced me to sign up for the Toledo Glass City half marathon with him. He told me that unless I actually signed up for something and had a goal, it would be easy to keep putting it off…and he was right. So, in January I finally set my goal: to run 13.1 miles on April 25th. Therefore, I had four months to build my endurance for my first half marathon from 4 miles to 13.1 miles.
As I started to run longer distances, I began to have the same phrase run through my mind again and again, "…run with endurance the race set before you…" (A quote from the bible, Hebrews 12:1). And so I began asking the question, what does it take to run with endurance, to run longer and longer distances? There are so many spiritual analogies with running, but I never fully related to them before. But for the first time in my life, I began to understand from experience what it takes to run with endurance.
Continue reading the article here...
2. Supporting Each Other
FindYourTrueBeauty.com was created to be a place to help and be helped. It's designed to be a community of girls and women finding their true beauty in Christ. Here are some ways people are reaching out to one another and encouraging each other!
4. Stories of Hope
Many girls and women share their stories on my website to offer hope. If you need encouragement, read a few of these powerful testimonies today!
Kaiden's Journey
Light at the End of the Road
5. True Beauty Video and Audio Podcasts
Check out our new audios and videos on the site! The audio podcasts also have downloadable PDF transcripts if you prefer to read.
New Video:
Shelley Shares Stories from Her Trip to Haiti
New Audio Podcasts:
Supporting Each Other In Community
6. The Online Ministry Continues to Grow!
It was encouraging to see our daily number of visitors finally go over the 1,000 mark last month! Isn't that amazing? That means a total of more than 30,000 people from all over the world were reached last month through this website...and I give God all the credit! God is at work and continues to grow the online portion of this ministry.
And as the ministry grows, so do the demands of the ministry. Therefore, God has led me to add our first staff member to the ministry....an Online Ministry Coordinator. I'm excited to introduce her to you, S'ambrosia Curtis. She has been an online mentor with the ministry and has demonstrated not only a passion to help teen girls but an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ that shines through her.
With S'ambrosia's help co-ordinating the online portion of the ministry, it will free me up to do more speaking as well as create more new material. I am so thankful that God has provided S'ambrosia to help with this ministry. Thank you S'ambrosia!
Having a youth retreat or conference?
Bring Shelley to Your Next Event!
Finally...
Has this website encouraged you? Do you have any comments or ideas? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this e-mail and tell me what you think!
And help us by spreading the word. Tell your friends to check out www.FindYourTrueBeauty.com and to sign up for this newsletter. In doing so, you'll be giving her a gift...a free PDF copy of my book, "Mirror Mirror Am I Beautiful."
Helping you find your true beauty in Christ,
Shelley