A year of “Real Women”

By Tori Sheppard

Today, we finish the Real Women blog one-year experiment with our final installment.

We began with a question:  What would emerge if a different woman from Causeway Coast Vineyard told a real story of something God was doing in each of their lives for an entire year? 

A year later, 51 different women have told their stories.

51 women who took a risk

51 women who said ‘yes’ when I asked if they would do it

51 women engaging in scary/exciting moments as they sat down at the computer to write their story

51 women and their expressions of utter vulnerability

51 women and the authentic stories of the power of God in their lives

51 women who gave gifts to us all

And those 51 stories didn’t just travel around the North Coast. No, they went much, much, further…

According to the statistics for the Real Women blog on Blogger, our little experiment has had almost 22,000 views from AROUND THE WORLD. Over 16,000 views came from the UK and the rest came from countries scattered across the globe. I guess that’s just the power of social media - but wow!  Who knew?

What was it about what we did that struck such a chord in so many?

I’ve thought a lot about it because I’ve been the one who sees many of  the “shares” on social media, and I have had the privilege of hearing from so many of the women who wrote about the impact their little blog has had on not only other women’s lives… but also their own.

For some of the brave women that wrote, it was the first time they had ever told that part of their story publicly. For some, it was deeply risky and deeply vulnerable to share their story. But you know what? The feedback from those women is that they LOVED doing it! And they received waves and waves of encouragement from other women who said they “needed” to read their story, who connected with their journey, their pain, their loss, their celebration, their revelation of Jesus, their understanding of their Father’s heart, their freedom, and their “real-ness.”

The more I’ve poured over all the comments from readers and considered all the conversations with the writers.  I am more convinced than ever that the power of our testimony and our stories is a powerful force in the Kingdom of God, even, might I say, a weapon of hope against the darkness and a full blown proclamation of worship and praise.

You see, each of these stories, at their root, says one thing. To sum it up it’s something like this: I am who I am because Christ in me is the hope of glory.   

Colossians 1:27To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So what we’ve done is publish, across the world, 51 stories of the faithfulness of God in the lives of women on the North Coast of Northern Ireland. 

We’ve said Jesus IS the power of healing and transformation in our lives. 2 Corinthians 3:18

We’ve said that when we were lost He found us.  Luke 15:32

We’ve said He gave us strength when we didn’t have strength to carry on.  Phillipians 4:13

We’ve said He is showing us who we were designed to be. Psalm 139:14-15

We’ve said He bore our grief and carried us in times of suffering.  Isaiah 53

We’ve said He lifted us from the muck and mire and placed our feet on solid rock.  Psalm 40:2

We’ve said He stepped in when we didn’t see a way out.  Psalm 18

We’ve said He is in the big of our lives AND the small.  Matthew 6:30

We’ve said He wants to be close to us and have intimate relationship with us as Father, friend and also Lord and Saviour.  John 10:30, John 1:14, Psalm 68:5, 1 John 4:14, John 15

We’ve said He rescues.  Psalm 37:39

We’ve said He wants us to be at peace with who He created us to be  Ephesians 2:10

We’ve said we should dream big dreams with Him for our community and our world   Matthew 28:16-20

We’ve said we want Him to use whatever is in our hands to serve the poor and reach out to those in any kind of need around us  Exodus 4:2 , Psalm 82:3-4, Matt 25:35

We’ve seen Him break the chains of worrying about what others think about us….so we can just be REAL.  Hebrews 13:6, Proverbs 29:25

To be honest, there’s no way I could begin to list EVERY attribute of the faithfulness of God and what you said He has done in your lives in this closing blog.

BUT suffice to say…

We’ve done something powerful women… And I’m not sure we even knew the power of what we were doing!?

For every woman that wrote AND for everyone who shared these stories around on social media and email, we were engaged in something immense, battling darkness and negativity and doubt and unbelief.

And all we were doing was turning on our light… Just shining the light that was in us already.

You’ll have to forgive me but I can’t help but think in pictures, and I’ve been thinking about Narnia when they lead the charge in the battle in “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” shouting “For Narnia and for Aslan!” 

So as I've thought about we have done with this blog, I can't help but see all of us with hope lifted like swords held high shouting “For Jesus and His Kingdom!”  :)

I have to admit, the timing of all of this is interesting to me.  A year on from when we started these stories of His power and goodness in our lives, we are seeing almost 100 people a week come to Jesus on the streets of our community and in our church environments like services, groups, etc.  This is unprecedented for us!

Could it be that the power of our testimony was playing a small part all the while in getting the “soil” ready for this “harvest??”

Whatever the case, what we do know is this. The power of our stories is changing lives.  We MUST keep telling the stories of His goodness in our lives.  We MUST keep shouting as loudly and as widely as we can, that HE IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. (John 14:6)

So…

We just can’t stop the blog.  ;)

It may not be posted every week but it will keep going for sure, probably monthly.  And we will keep telling the stories of women in our First Thursday events once a month and we will keep encouraging ALL of us to tell the stories of Jesus and what He has done in our lives. 

Now here’s a real confession from me: I didn’t expect this blog to be as special as it has been. I didn’t realise its power.  I think I’m beginning to understand the power of our stories more and more, the power of what happens when we just get the word out about how wonderful He is and what He can do not only in our lives, but in the lives of everyone in our world. I feel like we did a little experiment and He decided to show off what can happen when we just do what’s in our hands and available to do. He makes it wonderful!!!

Apparently it doesn’t matter HOW we tell our testimony, it’s just important that we do it. We know that there is a promise of OVERCOMING that we know comes from “the word of our testimony.”

Revelation 12:11And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

So these stories have been much more than “feel good” social media moments. They are for overcoming, for speaking up, and for honouring the Father, friend and Saviour of our lives. 

In the first Real Women blog post I was encouraging us all to “just get down to the business of figuring out our own 'amazing' that God gave us and start living our lives in light of that.”  And that “I really do want us all to be the women we were designed to be: women on the road that 'leads to awesome.'"

This past year of the Real Women blog, we have shouted loud and clear that we are on the road that “leads to awesome,” and that HE is the reason we on on that road!

So, to sum up:

As a die hard Women Superfan I couldn’t be more delighted with all the “awesome” that has happened in the past year on this blog.  And that was only 51 stories.  There are THOUSANDS of you out there with stories that are waiting to be told.

So, yes we will continue the blog!

But more importantly than blogging your story, just be sure you are telling your STORY!  Shout your story of the faithfulness of God from the rooftops.  There is no telling what we will unleash, overcome, transform and set into being by the power of our testimony.  Just keep up the bold, courageous, “dangerous” lives you are already living.

This is us:

  

A real movement of real women who believe there is a real reason to live and a real source of love: a real Saviour with real power to change and heal lives and communities and yes, the world. 

Thank you for making this year of the Real Women blog great.

So on this glorious Easter day, let's look to our Saviour and celebrate everything He has done.

Here’s to the adventures ahead…

I raise my hope like a sword held high with you all!

Tori