Today, I have a devotional on being Rootbound featured at Circle of Friend’s ministry page. Please visit it, read it and share it if it ministers to you.
Also, to introduce you to the purpose and heart of Circle of Friends Ministry, I am offering my first giveaway. It is the book A Place to Belong by Lisa Troyer, President of Circle of Friends ministry.
The mission of Circle of Friends is to honor Jesus Christ through meeting the needs of women in our local, national and international communities.
Does the title of the book speak to you? Have you ever needed a place to belong? A place of acceptance, authenticity, affirmation, accountability, and action with other women?
A safe place to be?
I have. When I met members of the Circle of Friends ministry team at Carol Kent’s conference this summer, my internal thoughts were
Where have you been my whole life?
How many times have I needed a safe place to be with other women, especially when walking through the most vulnerable and difficult times of life?
Not only am I privileged to partner with them in ministry as one of their devotional writers, but I want to share their ministry with others, and share safe places through A Place To Belong. Author Lisa Troyer authentically shares about depression and other personal struggles she has encountered. She shares the life-giving hope honest relationships with other women provide. A Place to Belong can also be used for a bible study or resource for starting a Circle of Friends group.
Won’t you join me in entering the world of authentic, safe relationships?
This is my first giveaway. I may not do this right, but here’s my attempt. 
I don’t receive any compensation from giveaways I may have. Beyond the Picket Fence is a ministry, and it’s my commitment to readers to share things that will minister the hope and grace of Jesus Christ. A Place to Belong does that and I would like to share it with my readers.
To enter the giveaway once, please email me at yoderbl@gmail.com with your name, email address, and physical address so I can mail it to you if your name is drawn! If you enter more than once, also indicate in the email which of the options below you have completed.
To enter 2, 3 or 4 times, I would love for you to share the ministry of both Circle of Friends and Life Beyond the Picket Fence by either subscribing to Life Beyond the Picket Fence via email (right side bar), joining the ministry Facebook page (right side bar), or joining the ministry on Twitter (right side bar). You can find all of these tools on the right side bar. Please email me if you have questions are problems. Once connected on Facebook or Twitter, please share the link to Circle of Friends Ministry page, the Root-bound devotional, or this post!
When you connect in the ways above, you’ll be entered for each time you’ve partnered with us! I will keep the entry open until Sunday, October 7.
There is an average of over 100 readers per post at Life Beyond the Picket Fence. It would be my privilege to get to know more about you – to interact personally with you. It’s also an encouragement to me when others connect with the ministry through social media because it means you’ve been encouraged by being here, for His honor and glory.
Please share the news about the giveaway – A Place to Belong is a must read for women.
Love to you in His Name,
Brenda
I’m so happy that you are writing for COF! It was such a joy to meet you last summer at Speak Up!
Oh I am going over to read…don’t we all need a safe place…all of us!
I have read your devotional Rootbound. It is good, and I understand what you are talking about, because that is also my experience. These past five weeks, I have been here in Manila, and I had some time to check the potted plants in a portion of our big garden. The potted plants were all growing, yet also turning yellow and dying in some parts. WHen I took them out of the pots one by one, their roots were all coiled around the top portion, roots were not going down into the soil. SO I had to trim back the roots to force new growth to come out, and begin to go into the soil, and get proper nutrition. Amazing that your post is on the very thing I have been doing. And until you gave the analogy, I didn’t realize that it was a picture of my own spiritual condition. So, thank you dear Brenda. By the way I tried to go to your facebook page by clicking on the FB link on your sidebar, but it gives me a notification that your security setting won’t allow me to see the page. I wonder what can be done…
Blessings, dear friend. Happy Feast of Tabernacles!
Lidia
Thank you so much dear Lidia! I checked out the settings and I had it limited to only US visitors! Sorry about that – you should be able to get to it now. Thank you dear one!