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Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 11

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 11

At this point in time, throughout my years of serving Tirzah Ministries, you have heard the behind the scenes story of my time of preparation. You’ve seen what it’s like to burn ships - to destroy old ideas and concepts that no longer serve the future God has planned for me. I can’t say it is easy to be transparent about your life. However, I have been so fortunate to have so many AMAZING women ministry leaders, authors, and pastor’s wives pour into me. I may never meet you in person, but I hope my stories teach you and your ability to share your story on Tirzah inspire you to a deeper faith.

Community, Justice and MissionsAlycia MarieAugust 18, 2021building bridges, burning ships, seriesComment

Be An Influencer

Be An Influencer

Do you have anyone in your life right now that you admire? I do. I am fortunate enough to have several women in my life who are ahead of me both in years and faith that I look up to and who are full of godly wisdom. Prayerfully, there are some younger ladies in my life who look up to me in that way.

Community, DiscipleshipJennifer GoodwinAugust 17, 2021community, mentorship, titus 2 Comments

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 10

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 10

I never saw myself continuing this story yet again. We’re talking about Burning ships & Building Bridges again, but this time I’ll pull you back out of leadership and into my personal world. I’ll never forget the week of February 21st. It was the week I burned ships, so I could learn to build bridges.

CommunityAlycia MarieAugust 13, 2021building bridges, burning ships, series, communityComment

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 9

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 9

This is the beginning conclusion of my “Burning Ships & Building Bridges” series. The next three parts are actually going to pull you into the final chapter of “How God Led Me to Start a Home for Teen Mothers”. What I hope you learn from this is that there are topics that are important here on earth. They are important for us to understand and learn how to build bridges versus burning ships. All of the topics I’ve discussed have been temporal issues - gender, race, sexuality, pro-life, and more. The final issue that is most temporal of all that I want to discuss is everyone’s favorite topic, politics.

CommunityAlycia MarieAugust 12, 2021politics, building bridges, burning ships, seriesComment

To Do Or Not To Do

To Do Or Not To Do

It was a Friday morning, my day off- I enjoyed a quiet slow start and had a leisurely breakfast. As I prayed about how to spend my day, a verse I had read came to mind. “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”-Matthew 7:12a NIV

Community, LifestyleShoba RanjitsinghAugust 10, 2021community, doing unto others, serving others Comments

Offering Help & Hope

Offering Help & Hope

The state that I live in has just entered a week of full lockdown restrictions in the wake of the Delta strain being found among local Covid tests. It was both annoying and stressful to receive the news just one day before school holidays were due to end but, in another way, somewhat timely.

Community, A Noble CharacterGuest UserAugust 5, 2021hope, healing Comment

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 8

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 8

In the United States, today’s war seems to fall more along black and white than Jew or Greek. It is interesting to me how people think victimization of a race is new and unique. When we look throughout history, we can go all the way back in time to the war between the Jews and the Greeks in the Bible. All over the world there are culture clashes and race wars. There are the Hutus and Tutsis in Africa, the apartheid in South Africa, and a war in the Slavic areas that broke out because of people in different countries marrying one another!

Community, Justice and MissionsAlycia MarieAugust 4, 2021building bridges, burning ships, series, racismComment

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 7

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 7

Since we’ve been on the topic of gender for the last few weeks, I thought it would be great to shift gears to everyone’s favorite topic - sexuality. In the 21st century, sexuality is our new identity. Why?

Community, RelationshipsAlycia MarieJuly 28, 2021building bridges, burning ships, series, sexualityComment

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 6

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 6

I should clarify, “Building Bridges & Burning Ships” is a culmination of what I have learned throughout my young adult years in leadership. It was a long road to learn these lessons with mistakes along the way, times where bridges were burned and ships were built, instead of bringing unity there was disunity. Times where I found myself in the middle of disunity, instead of unity.

CommunityAlycia MarieJuly 22, 2021building bridges, burning ships, part 6, seriesComment

Coffee, Cake & Christ

Coffee, Cake & Christ

We are a group of eight friends. Wives, mothers, grandmothers from different parts of the world with one common bond. We all love Christ and met through Bible Study Fellowship in Auckland several years back. Now, though we are no longer in the same Bible study group, we meet once every other month. We try to make it fun each time- a picnic, a swap party, a shared meal, coffee and cake and during the lockdown we even met on zoom sessions a couple of times!

Community, DiscipleshipShoba RanjitsinghJuly 16, 2021community, Proverbs 31 Woman, encouraging othersComment

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 5

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 5

Last time we talked about burning ships and building bridges. We touched on my choice to not be in church leadership as a female. I want to tell you about a conversation that I had with an elder’s wife last week on the day that article came out.

Community, LifestyleAlycia MarieJuly 15, 2021building bridges, burning ships, seriesComment

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 4

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 4

In Part 3, you read about my amazing mentor and best friend who shepherded me so much in how to be a wife and mother. She taught me how to burn ships and build bridges in so many ways. This section of my journey in leadership has perhaps been one of the most challenging. One where instead of being encouraged by pastors and church leaders and peers, I was frowned upon and continued to be. It’s everybody’s favorite topic - female roles in the church.

Community, FemininityAlycia MarieJuly 7, 2021building ships, burning bridges, community, women in leadershipComment

Transitioning From Singleness To Marriage

Transitioning From Singleness To Marriage

Let me begin by saying, I was single for twenty years. (Which doesn't sound like that much time, but a lot of life happened in those twenty years.) I was a self-described “strong and independent woman.” Singleness was amazing, though it was hard some days (I’m downplaying how often I cried in my car), but it was fulfilling to know I was focusing my time on serving God. Honestly, I expected there would be a much longer process between being single, and being in a relationship. Perhaps a couple of months of, “hmm, I could adjust to the idea of not being single anymore.” or something. Fireworks? A giant sign?

Community, Singleness, RelationshipsMia GraceJuly 2, 2021singleness, marriage, Biblical womanhood, biblical marriage Comments

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 3

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 3

We left off in part two as I was meeting a pastor’s wife and heading out to coffee. I feel like that coffee meeting was a trajectory for my life. Yes, I know, that’s pretty dramatic, but let me explain more.

Community, DiscipleshipAlycia MarieJune 29, 2021community, disciple makingComment

Leading By Example: Practical Advice For Leading A Bible Study

Leading By Example: Practical Advice For Leading A Bible Study

It’s summertime and now seems like the perfect time to settle in for a good series on Netflix, am I right? Is that just me? I have to be really careful in this carefree season of relaxation and a lighter schedule, because if I’m not, I could easily spend all day long binge-watching my favorite shows. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, necessarily, but moderation is a good thing to consider. That being said, I am trying to be mindful of what I fill my mind with and how I spend my time.

Community, DiscipleshipJennifer GoodwinJune 23, 2021leadership, bible studyComment

Love Better.

Love Better.

How can we love better? Loving others is work. Love is fun. Love is rewarding. Love is sacrifice. Still, what does love actually look like?

Relationships, CommunityWhitney MalloyJune 16, 2021relationships, loving others, love like JesusComment

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 2

Building Bridges & Burning Ships: Part 2

I want to tell you about something I’ve noticed on the journey of building bridges and burning ships (part 1 here). Labels. They are so fun. When you meet a person you start to categorize them - the color of their skin, their age, their gender, their sexuality, or maybe what they do for a living. We don’t intentionally place people in a box - nonetheless we do. One of the things I’ve noticed in the modern-day church is an unintentional “burning ships”.

Community, LifestyleAlycia MarieJune 15, 2021burning bridges, building ships, community, church, servingComment

"Please Remove Your Mask"

"Please Remove Your Mask"

In so many places we are told to put on facemasks these days. It has become normal. Slip it on, slip it off. That got me thinking. What if someone asked the opposite? Just imagine. Something along these lines: “For your own good and the good of others, please remove your mask.”

CommunitySarah Susanna RhombergApril 23, 2021honesty, community Comments

When (The) Church Hurts

When (The) Church Hurts

I heard a statement recently from someone who has been hurt by another in the church. When I say "in the church," I mean within the body of believers that makes up the church, not the actual church building. That got me thinking about what we do when people hurt us.

Community, DiscipleshipJennifer GoodwinApril 14, 2021church, church hurts, forgivenessComment

What Does It Mean To Be A Friend?

What Does It Mean To Be A Friend?

Friendship is something we all know, experience, and offer, but rarely is it something that we stop to truly think about. When was the last time you looked up a TED Talk on how to be a better friend or bought a book on improving your friendship skills?

CommunityGuest UserApril 9, 2021relationships, friendship, Godly friendshipComment