If you’ve followed my blog since last summer or before, you’ll know that one of the loves of my heart is the mentoring ministry, Apples of Gold.  It’s a fun means of mentoring  using cooking, teaching and fellowship.  We meet for six weeks, three hours each session.  I’ve had two full six week sessions in the last two summers, and it has been both a blessing and a blast!

I decided before our next session starts in July that I needed to have a reunion with the first two groups.  So, our first reunion was held this past Monday in my home.  I asked each lady to bring a dish to share and I provided the main dish of Pork Tenderloin with Brown Sugar Balsamic Glaze (one of my favorites of the recipes we made!).

We had quite a spread!  They brought salads, vegetables, rolls, and desserts and they were all so delicious! We enjoyed a great time of fellowship around the table as we ate our supper.

After the meal was over, I asked everyone to bring their chair to the dining room table.  Then we pulled out Jenga.  Are you familiar with it?  Little pieces of wood are all stacked up – one row going one direction, the next row going the other.  The object of the game is to pull or push out a piece and then set it on the top without knocking the stack over!

It gets very quiet when each player takes a turn.  We hardly breathed until the piece was safe and the tower of blocks still from its swaying.  And even though we were each competing against one another, there was a collective sigh and applause when the opponent was successful!

There was even some coaching going on~

“No, don’t move that one, it has no support underneath!”

“You can do it!”

“Careful!  It’s shaking!”

One of the players would playfully say,

“I pass!”

She could see that it was risky and she wasn’t sure she wanted to be the one who caused the crash!  We cheered her on and kept her in the game, however!  And guess what?  She wasn’t the one who pulled the wrong piece out!  I did!  But it was fun and we laughed at even the ending of the game.

Following Jenga, I asked everyone to gather in the living room.  I shared with them that there was a method to the madness of us playing that game.  You see, the real reason I asked all those women over to my home in the first place was to try to encourage them to in their spiritual lives (okay, and I wanted that tasty meal!).  I wanted to challenge their hearts to have a strategy to keep them moving forward in their Christian walk.  I reminded them that, just as we cheered one another on in the game, the mentors and I were cheering them on!  We want to see them succeed in being a  godly woman for the glory of the Lord!  We don’t want to find one of them “dropping out” because the challenge is too great!

We ended by pairing off and praying together for the burdens on their hearts.  It was such a blessing to me.  They’ll never know what a joy it is to see them continuing on faithful and dedicated to growing in God’s Word, in prayer, and in serving our great God.

We all do better when we work as a team.  With whom are you accountable?  Who is cheering for you and challenging you?  If you don’t have someone, pray about it.  The Lord will bring an encourager along for you!  Whom are you encouraging?  Maybe it’s time to check in with them.  Teamwork is better than going it alone!

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
Ecclesiastes 4:9

Stay encouraged with the help of your team!