magazine
WINTER 1 1
BLACK IS THE NEW BLACK FRANCINE RIVERS UNDERSTANDING Y O U R M A N #5 THE FRIENDSHIP FILES MUM'S THE WORD
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SONGBIRD
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JOYCE MEYER BOBBIE HOUSTON LISA BEVERE JANE EVANS
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WINTER
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10 W H E R E YO U WA L K
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THE FRIENDSHIP FILES
JANE EVANS TALKS ABOUT THE RIGHT PATH
TO HAVE FRIENDS, BE A FRIEND
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THEIR WINTER
50 P R E G NA N C Y & BA BY 10 1
HOW MANY WILL SPEND THEIR COLD MONTHS
14
FAC I N G 50
52 WO B B LY WO M A N
Rediscovered dreams
18
SITTING ON A DEAD HORSE?
58 M U M 'S T H E WO R D
WISDOM FROM Our FRIEND, JOYCE MEYER
Part 3 WITH EXPERT ANTENATALIST TIONIE NEWTH
A JOURNEY TO STABLE DAYS
Keeping it under wraps
20 LY D I A : S O N G B I R D J O U R N E YS
60 B L AC K I S T H E N E W B L AC K
MEET OUR CUTE & QUIRKY SONGBIRD
26
ANDY'S SONG
64 S H O U T I T L O U D E R
WORSHIP FROM THE CANCER WARD
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DA N G E RO U S LY AWA K E
LESSONS FROM THE LIONESS WITH LISA BEVERE
OUR GUIDE TO THE LITTLE BLACK DRESS
BOBBIE HOUSTON & THE COLOUR REVOLUTION
30 the understanding your man series
THE FINAL INSTALLMENT with Mark Paul
34
FRANCINE RIVERS
WE CHAT TO THE QUEEN OF WORDS
40 TA PA S
SPAINISH DELIGHTS FOR OUR TASTEBUDS
The Covergirl Lydia Cole (page 20)
Editor-in-Chief Kasey Mac Assistant Editor Katrina Meade Creative Director Bel Pangburn Content Director Sabrina Peters General Manager Jordan Meade Advertising Kerry Sutherland Subscriptions Renae Bradford Production Assistant Ruth Williamson Proofreaders Janine Palmer, Madeleine Worth Photography Breony Walsh, Aleisha Greening, Matt Johnson, Sarah Watson, Bel Pangburn Layout Bel Pangburn Patrons Lisa Bevere, Jane Evans, Bobbie Houston
Australian Phone 1300 765 256 International Phone +61 7 56 303 704 Fax +61 7 5532 0639 Post PO Box 7244, Southport Park QLD 4215, AUSTRALIA Online www.enhancemagazine.com Email info@enhancemagazine.com Enhance Magazine is created for women who desire to develop their relationship with their Lord unreservedly, embrace His people unconditionally, and pursue their purpose wholeheartedly. The views expressed in articles and letters are the responsibility of the respective authors and are not necessarily those of Enhance Christian Women’s Magazine. The acceptance of advertisements does not indicate editorial endorsement. No part of the publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without prior permission. Copyright 2011.
editor’s note
MAZING RACE "Yes. You are pregnant." I stared blankly for what was probably an awkwardly long amount of time at my doctor of 29 years, as he delivered me this news with a wry fatherly smile and I feebly told him I wasn't ready. "No-one is ever really ready!" he responded again with the wry fatherly smile! And thus, suddenly and quite by surprise, my journey into motherhood had begun. I won't lie to you. I panicked! You see I am not really one of those 'baby' people... Sure I wanted babies one day... Just not quite yet! It was not part of my plan! I had not even really held any babies apart from my sister's two daughters and I had even almost dropped them a few times thus reinforcing my lack of baby prowess. I literally had no idea how I was going to do this! Little Kids were a different deal. Little kids I could do. I was armed with some skill, a degree of natural talent and was confident in my ability to do what needed to be done. In fact I liked them so much that I made a career out of hanging with little kids for a six hour school day! But to look after a little baby I felt completely unqualified, unequipped, unskilled, freaked out! Fifteen years on however, I have somehow managed to keep this baby (now 14!) alive... The first five years being a bit of a blur but becoming a little easier when he turned five and I came into what felt like familiar territory for a few years until he became a teenage boy which again, I have little experience with! But I take comfort in the beautiful words of Ecclesiastes 3:11 which assure us that in HIS time, He makes all things beautiful! It was His time for Jack Mac to enter the world! Not a minute too soon... Not a minute too late! Proverbs 16:9 also
reminds us that man makes his plans, but God directs his steps! Yeah I had made my plan for parenthood, but God had other ideas! And now I couldn't imagine it any other way and I'm sure if you look back over your life, you can perhaps see His sovereign hand guiding you and directing you in His perfect timing! Another plan I had was that I would enjoy a long and satisfying career as a teacher, perhaps one day becoming a primary school principal or perhaps a music teacher as this also was something I could do, armed with some skills and a degree of natural musical talent and confident in my own ability. But again God had other ideas, and five years ago my husband and I began pastoring our own church and at our very first meeting I turned to look at the hundreds of people gathered there, tears rolling down my face, again feeling unqualified, unequipped, unskilled, and yes... Freaked out! Again I found myself literally having no idea how I was going to do this! But in my growing understanding of grace, I realise now that He uses the unqualified, the unequipped, the unskilled, the freaked out! 2 Corinthians 12:9: His GRACE is sufficient for me! And His strength is made perfect in my weakness! I qualify by the mere fact that I am unqualified! And weak. I began to realise that yes I could do teaching or music... I was capable, trained, confident... But confident in who? ME! This stuff was all about me! I had the skill. I had the talent. I had the ability and I could pretty much do this stuff on my own under my own strength. But I have learnt that talent helps you do the things you can do, but GRACE helps you do the things you cannot do! :)
There is no way I could be a great mum or a senior pastor and no way that any of us can do anything that we are attempting to do apart from His amazing grace that enables us to do it! But even those things we can do: the skills, talents, gifts, capabilities that we are confident with, like me with the teaching or the music... Well even these are only a result of His grace! 1 Peter 4:10 says that each of us should use whatever gift we have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms! Any natural gifts, talents or capabilities we have are expressions of His grace! They are not even something we can take credit for! He gave them to us! He has 'graced' us to be able to do certain things that should be stewarded to serve others and to glorify Him, and He has also 'graced' us to do the things we have no idea how to do! It's all grace! :) So my lovely girls, no matter what you have to do, whether you can do it or you can't do it, relax, exhale and walk peacefully into your circumstance fully confident in the fact that He will grace you to be able to do all these things and that the weaker we are, the more His strength will flow through us. His grace IS sufficient. Love you xox
Kasey Mac Editor-in-Chief
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CON TRI BUT ORS A
V ik k i R
le i s
h a G r e e ni n
g
B re o n y W als h
o u bi n
Hi! I'm Aleisha.
Hi! I'm Vikki. As the author of the inspiring book, ‘Wobbly - One Woman’s Journey Onward & Upward’, Vikki describes her life as being, in most ways, quite unremarkable albeit pretty jolly. She’s breached the forties, is happily married with a big mortgage, two teenage children, two cats, one naughty beagle and one songless canary. She lives in the burbs of Brisbane in sunny Queensland and when she's not writing or updating websites or checking Facebook, she teaches people to sing. This she does for a living.
Aleisha Greening lives in sunny Nelson, New Zealand. A recent graduate with a Diploma in Graphic Design she is working for a Nelson Design company. She is also studying towards a Diploma in Professional Photography. She is passionate for ALL things creative and loves anything to do with photography! Spending most of her weekends out on photo shoots or treasure hunting in op shops with her boyfriend. She is also on the creative arts team at Annesbrook Church. Her passion and dream is to see God use her photography as a mouth piece.
Hi! I'm Breony. For someone who always wanted to be in front of a camera, it amuses me to find myself very happily behind one. My name is Breony Paige Welsh, owner of the business Paige Photography. I didn’t realise until a few years ago, when I picked up a camera and looked at the world through a lens that there was where my talent and passion lay. Since day one it has never felt like a job to me and I don’t believe it ever will. I love to capture detail and the ‘small things’, whether it be at a wedding or in a relationship, which presents my images like a story. To see more of my work, take a look at: www.paigephotography.org
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where you walk WORDS: Jane
Evans IMAGE: Aleisha Greening
START:
There
is a walking track down the end of our street along linear park. It is beautiful and runs along the creek for miles. I love to walk there as often as I can; it’s where I go to pray. I like to get out of the house away from all the distractions and the hordes of often random people I have never met who seem to live at my place! I love the time I spend talking with God on this track, I have some great memories over the 15 years I’ve been walking there. There's only one problem, bikes also use the track. While I'm talking to God they whizz past and terrify the life out of me! They are supposed to ring their bells but they never do. When I was in primary school I was run over by a boy called John Woodward who was riding home on his bike. He rode into me, knocked me to the ground, and then beat me over the head with his football boots tied together by the laces! Now I can't remember exactly what I did to him to provoke the attack, but I’m sure I didn’t deserve the ferocity with which it was unleashed! Consequently it has left me a little wary of bikes!
So when these bikes whizz past it’s started to get me really mad and I want to yell at them, but somehow I never do, it just gets stuck in my throat! As a result during the years I have been walking along that track, without being conscious of making a decision to do so, I have moved further and further over to the left hand side of the path. I’m trying to avoid being terrified witless every time a bike whizzes past as I’m lost in thought and the dialogue I’m enjoying with God. It really hasn't helped, moving right over to the left, it just makes them feel like they don’t have to move over for me at all, and I’m certainly not enough threat to them to even make them slow down. Last week I was walking and praying and it happened about three times in the space of two minutes! I was mad, and I had a bit of a whine to God. I told Him about it and the fact that it was starting to interfere with my time with Him. I wanted Him to change their behaviour, to somehow make everyone who came up behind me aware of the need to ring their bell... or at least make them fall off their bikes as they passed me if they didn't!
A
fter I had unloaded my complaint to God there was a pause, and then came His reply. "Try changing where you walk’ It hit me like an explosion! I suddenly realized that I was trying to change the behaviour of everyone else around me, and God was gently suggesting to me that perhaps I should change MINE INSTEAD, to change where I was walking! You see I had been walking to the very left of the path to avoid any collision with a bike but it had only compounded the issue. The bikes coming up behind me saw me as no threat; there was no need to ring their bell as I was clearly stuck to the very left of the path. I was doing the right thing, but now God spoke to me and said you are doing the right thing
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from the wrong place! I immediately stepped into the centre of the path just to the left of the middle line, I still wanted to be doing the right thing. The signs clearly say to keep to the left but anything left of the white line is left, right? I suddenly felt empowered. This is as much my path as it was theirs! I have been walking and praying on this path for 15 years! I probably keep the crime rate down in my area, they need me...... Do you know the very next bike that came past, slowed and rang his bell! He didn't see that I had tears running down my face as God began to download revelation from His heart to mine. He began to whisper to me that even though I had been doing the right thing, I had been doing it from the wrong place! To the left of the path where I had been walking was a place of fear. I had been doing the right thing but from a position of fear. Because of my past experiences I had changed my posture and had begun to cower on the edge of the path. I was hoping all along that people’s behaviour towards me would
change, praying for it to change, getting mad at them when it didn’t change. But when I stepped out to the middle of the path, I had to step out in faith and also continue to walk in faith. I had to trust that the bikes would move out of the way for me, I had to believe that they would do the right thing and ring their bell even though experience had told me that they never do. I had to move to a position of faith before anything changed. You and I have been called to walk a certain path in life and many of us have been walking in fear because we have been hurt in the past and God says to us, “I don’t want you to walk any longer in fear, I want you to take a bold step into the middle of that path that I have called you to walk on. Don’t look around you and try and change other people’s behaviour, but look first at where you are walking, change your position, and I will take care of the rest.” Does this mean that every bike from that day till now has rung its bell for me? No way! But more of them have than haven’t! And now
I get a little cheeky, If I sense that someone isn’t slowing down for me, I wander a little more to the right... I chuckle when I hear their brakes screech and see them wobble past me in their panic to avoid this staggering menopausal woman who is “all over the path”. You see my whole approach has changed, I’ve even been known to sing out “Use your bell” in a friendly sing song tone as people have passed me without realizing they had a bell. Now I’m not walking in fear I belong on this path, I’m also educating others about how to use the path! You see changing where you are walking not only changes the behaviour of others around you, it also changes you! Can I encourage you to look at where you are walking? Can I encourage you to step into the centre of the path that God has called you to walk and in faith taking full ownership of the path God has called you to walk. END.
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