The woman's decreasing role in the community, where women were no longer home and available to the people who might need them, had something to do with the IC filling in that gap, and eventually the socialist state. The two in tandem - IC doing more, women home less, worked together to decrease our role in caring for widows and orphans and reaching out to the lost. If anyone has read Corrie ten Boom's book about her childhood, you will find her stories about her mother, who was forever stirring something up on the stove, sending out baskets of food, though they had very little themselves. They always had dinner guests, too, and these guests were exposed to table bible discussions and prayer - they simply put more water in the soup as needed.

Anyone who has read about l'abri, the ministry run by the Schaeffer's, will also know what I mean. Dr. Schaeffer and Edith decided to open their home to the lost and searching, and they served them tirelessly. Dr. Schaeffer was in charge of teaching and preaching, and Mrs. Schaeffer of the womanly gifts such as service, cooking, counsel and comfort. They did not have to advertise, or send out flyers. Edith said that when the time was right the people simply came. And people who were there testified that as many people were won by Mrs. Schaeffer's cinnamon buns as by Dr. Schaeffer's sermons. Perfect example of outreach among a more home-style church ministry.

There is something that people are very hungry for today, something that since mom has been working has been notoriously absent. A warm, cozy, home - a cozy atmosphere where someone cares about the environment, a place where you want to snuggle up with a blanket and read instead of rushing away. So many have never experienced this, and we have found people have responded to it. About 8 years ago we opened our home to an agnostic young man who had no place to go at the moment. He was a student, but had left school for a while, and was struggling financially and otherwise. This man was very hard to tolerate, let me tell you, but sometimes the finest way to a young man's heart is through his stomach! So I cooked. Mrs. Schaeffer talked once of how sometimes at the end of the day, the mountain of dishes to be washed was pretty daunting - it never seemed to end. But she hung in there, and they accomplished amazing things. Well, what we accomplished was on a much smaller scale, I suppose, but that man accepted the Lord in the end, despite all his arguing against it, and I wasn't sorry for one dirty dish. And who knows how many people he may reach?

The Barth family (who writes the books under 'Parable Publishing House') mentioned an opportunity they once had. Now people ask them, if you keep to yourself so much, how do you outreach? After all, they home-school, home-church, live out in the country, and don't participate in lots of social things. Mr. Barth tells the story of a telephone man who came out to hook them up. After being there a while, the man stopped and asked them, wonderingly, what was different about them. Here were all these helpful children, and the family seemed to really be pulling together and enjoying one another as they helped move in. Well, that was the perfect opportunity to witness, and so Jeff presented the gospel to him. I wish I remembered the punch line, but I know the man accepted the Lord, then called them soon after and told them that his wife had accepted the Lord also, and they wanted more info on raising children, etc. etc.

Even in the bible, Dorcas (Tabitha) didn't need a church or a program in order to serve. She was quietly going about the business of serving, and when she died all the widows lamented, because there would be no one to take care of them. Talk about a hidden ministry. (And what a happy ending!) I know that a large group may be able to get larger amounts of money together for big one-time projects, but I don't think there is any substitute at all for each one doing his own little tiny part faithfully every day. Beats the heck out of referring people to government programs (ugh!) and in the case of women beats trudging off to a job every day where we aren't valued for the precious contribution we could be making if we had our rightful place in the community back. I tell you, being disabled myself now, and unable to do much of anything to help anyone else, in need of some help myself, I lament the Dorcas's that in the past may have come to my aid. They are all behind cash registers or typing and answering phones so their children can have computers and Nintendos. The few who aren't are so overloaded trying to fill in the gap that I wouldn't dream of asking them for a thing. May God give them strength and hopefully some help.

I do blame the IC for some of this - they separated families for "ministries", prevented a lot of the grassroots personal charity from springing up, made everything into programs and committees. Not much in the world worse than committees. I probably haven't done as good a job as I could of explaining this, but I know what I am trying to get at - I hope I've given a little taste or hunger for it here. It can happen, it was this way before and it could be again. We will never have to worry that we won't find opportunities, because if we are willing and available the Lord will send them. In the end, what the IC often thinks is God's anointing is really just the cloud of their own activity. Let each one do his little share and it'll happen.

You say you are disabled but your spirit is going at 100m.p.h. I think you should consider a ministry on the internet, afterall I think we are talking about the same medium of communication-----THE WORD----- think about it.