Sanctified Together Compassion and Discipleship Resource

Many of you know that I have an identical twin sister, Christina. She has been my help-mate and has counseled and prayed for several of my followers. She has also been instrumental in my writing blog, and God has wonderfully brought us together for an exiting new phase of this ministry. But, before I get into all of that, let me give you a little twin history.

Growing up, I was the controlling twin. Christina bent over backwards to please me. I took it for granted that I should always be first and my wants and needs were more important. I loved my sister very much, though, and at age 16 I told God that I loved her more than Him. Shortly after my confession, Christina pulled away from me. I can't blame her. I was selfish and dominating. My loss of her relationship caused the first crushing of my character (I've had many more since then). God used my brokenness to change my heart and to mold me.

As we got older, Christina learned to trust me again and our relationship was renewed. We both went to school, got our degrees, started careers, got married and had children. Life hasn't always been easy. We have strayed from God, have encountered heartaches and have made bad decisions; but God has always been there, guiding us.

Over three years ago, God asked me to start a writing blog. I didn't understand why. Although I loved writing, I had no idea how to write in the blogging world. When I first began writing, I would open the Bible and write a paragraph about the first verse I read. My only readers were my husband, Christina and God. I finally had to resign myself to the fact that I had to obediently write for God, even if I never saw a difference in people's lives.

During this "desert writing," however, I became involved in my women's ministry and started training as a disciple (disciple means learner) of Christ. I created the GBD Writing Ministry and learned as much as I could about ministry. Christina also became involved in our women's ministry and served in ministry outreach until God moved her and her family to another city. Since she lost all of her support group and ministry, she started playing with blog designs and slowly taught herself how to design blogs.

About a year ago, God started preparing me for a growth in my writing ministry. He showed me in the Gospels that the first four disciples that Jesus called were two sets of brothers: Andrew & Peter and Philip & Nathanael (John 1.35-50 NIV). I thought that was interesting, but I still couldn't believe that God would allow Christina and me to work together in ministry -- it was too good to be true!

Since Christina had learned how to design blogs, she wanted to help me with mine. When she started to help me, a miracle happened: My writing blog started to grow! She was the missing link. I could be the best writer in the world (which I'm not by a long shot), but without her, no one would read my writing. This transition in my writing blog was a God-confirmation that my dream of working in ministry with my twin could be a reality!

And now to the exciting new phase in our ministry.... Introducing Sanctified Together Compassion and Discipleship Resource! We are thrilled about this ministry and eager to see how God uses us to fulfill His divine plan. We are not perfect, but we eagerly desire to be obedient to His will and used for His purpose. We are starting this new phase of our ministry nice and slow. We have husbands and families and they are our most important ministries; however, we freely give of our spare time to serve the Kingdom of God!

We have added a few new features to the ministry. As you already know, we have changed the ministry site design. We want to make it obvious that our ministry is sanctified and set apart for God. Next, we want to pray for you! We added a new Prayer Request tab, and we hope that you will allow us to intercede on your behalf as the Holy Spirit leads. Also, we want you to be a part of this ministry, so we are producing the Sanctified Together Email & Online Publication. We are working on our first publication, and we want you to contribute!

As always, we will continue to encourage you with comments on your personal and/or writing blogs and answer your emails for support. And we will continue to write whatever the Holy Spirit lays on our hearts for Faith Imagined. Please head on over to the About the Twins tab and read all about Christina! She is taking a beautiful and bold step of obedience, and I want us to encourage her!

I wanted to add a little side note about the photo of the twin strawberries I took. I was eating at Jason's Deli with a friend after an awesome time at Corpus Christi Christian Fellowship's Fall Festival. I got to praise God, dance for His glory and consume godly insights from Marva Leavell's preaching. She is the pastor's wife and women's minister at CCCF. As I ate my fruit cup, I thought about the changes God was making in our ministry. When I looked down to the next piece of fruit, I saw two strawberries that were joined together. This was such a God wink! God wonderfully confirmed our ministry by showing me two individual strawberries that were each distinct and complete, yet bound together. Christina and I are two distinct individuals, joined together in a movement to share God's love with the world! We hope you will join us in our efforts to live sanctified lives!